The omicron variant is driving up the number of corona infections worldwide. Even those who have been vaccinated three times are not as well protected against Omicron as they are against the Delta variant. However, the course of the disease is often milder.
A subtype of the variant, BA.2, has now emerged in some countries, presumably even more contagious. This subtype is a "sister lineage" of BA.1 - also an omicron subvariant.
Data from Denmark, where the subtype is already widespread, show that the risk of infection with BA.2 is more than twice that of the previously dominant subtype BA.1.
Meanwhile, the subvariant has been detected in 57 countries, according to the World Health Organization (WHO) on Tuesday.
In some countries, the subvariant now accounts for more than half of all virus gene sequences collected. Among other things, cases were detected in Austria and France. In Germany so far only sporadically.
Similar symptoms with BA.2
But the immunologist Carsten Watzl assumes that BA.2 will "also prevail here", he wrote on Twitter on Monday. However, that is not yet a cause for alarm. Because the data also shows that BA.2 probably does not trigger a more severe course of the disease than the previous omicron variant. The symptoms are therefore similar to those of the BA.1 variant of omicron.
In view of the many unvaccinated people in Germany, he repeated his warning against allowing an infection. He strongly criticized the way of thinking that an infection with one of the omicron variants could replace a vaccination and pointed to the high probability of repeated infections. That is why the calculation "of the omicron infection as a vaccination through the back door" simply does not work. (with dpa)
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