Lab data suggests new COVID booster will protect against worrisome variant
Source: NPR
Scientists have produced the first data indicating that a variant that has raised alarm is unlikely to pose a big new COVID-19 threat. Four preliminary laboratory studies released over the weekend found that antibodies from previous infections and vaccinations appear capable of neutralizing the variant, known as BA.2.86."It is reassuring," says Dr. Dan Barouch, who conducted one of the studies at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston.
When it was first spotted, BA.2.86 set off alarm bells. It contains more than 30 mutations on the spike protein the virus uses to infect cells. That's a level of mutation on par with the original Omicron variant, which caused a massive surge. The concern was BA.2.86, while still rare, could sneak around the immunity people had built up and cause another huge, deadly wave.
"When something heavily mutated comes out of nowhere ... there's this risk that it's dramatically different and that it changes the nature of the pandemic," says Benjamin Murrell, who conducted one of the other studies at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden. But Murrell and Barouch's experiments, along with similar studies conducted by Yunlong Richard Cao at Peking University in China and by Dr. David Ho at Columbia University in New York, indicate BA.2.86, is unlikely to be another game-changer.
"For BA.2.86 the initial antibody neutralization results suggest that history is not repeating itself here," Murrell says. "Its degree of antibody evasion is quite similar to recently circulating variants. It seems unlikely that this will be a seismic shift for the pandemic." The studies indicate that BA.2.86 doesn't look like it's any better than any of the other variants at evading the immune system. In fact, it appears to be even be less adept at escaping from antibodies than other variants. And may also be less efficient at infecting cells.
Read more: https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2023/09/05/1197707351/lab-data-suggests-new-covid-booster-will-protect-against-worrisome-variant
= new reply since forum marked as read
I think now that they know what to look for, they can go back and really see how much is out there.
When I did a search earlier, I saw CDC ACIP had a meeting scheduled for Sept. 12 but there was no agenda listed, so wasn't sure and FDA's VRBPAC had a next meeting Oct. 5, but it's possible they could add one in earlier (they had already approved the bivalent strains back in June).
https://abcnews.go.com/Health/covid-19-booster-shots-expected-early-week/story?id=102943545
