After some breaks, the Omicron subvariant BA.5 is in headline again in many major national news media outlets again, including this headline Why the Omicron offshoot BA.5 is a big deal on CNN Health.
The CNN Health writes “many people who had recovered from Covid-19 as recently as March or April found themselves exhausted, coughing and staring at two red lines on a rapid test. How could this be happening again — and so soon?”
According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) latest data “in just over two months, BA.5 outcompeted its predecessors to become the dominant cause of Covid-19 in the United States. Last week, this subvariant caused almost 2 out of every 3 new Covid-19 infections in this country.”
CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky told at a White House Covid-19 briefing “We do not know about the clinical severity of BA.4 and BA.5 in comparison to our other Omicron subvariants. But we do know it to be more transmissible and more immune-evading. People with prior infection, even with BA.1 and BA.2, are likely still at risk for BA.4 or BA.5.”
Dr. Peter Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, told CNN “We’re looking at probably close to a million new cases a day. This is a full-on BA.5 wave that we’re experiencing this summer. It’s actually looking worse in the Southern states, just like 2020, just like 2021.”
Ali Mokdad, professor of health metrics sciences at the University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, reportedly told CNN “We estimate that for every reported case there are 7 unreported”.
Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the World Health Organization, said at a news briefing “I am concerned that cases of Covid-19 continue to rise, putting further pressure on stretched health systems and health workers. I am also concerned about the increasing trend of deaths.”