"Now we know the mRNA vaccine manufacturers are working to make a booster that contains BA.4 and BA.5, but by the time those vaccines are ready for distribution we may have a new circulating subvariant. In fact, in South Africa where they have high levels of immunity from vaccination and omicron infection, the BA.5 wave which has ended there was associated with less hospitalization and death than any prior waves." "But we also know they continue to prevent severe disease, hospitalization and death, and there's no evidence that that fact changes with BA.5. "Well, BA.5 is omicron, and we know the vaccinations don't do a super great job of preventing infection caused by omicron," Doron said. "There are stories of people getting infected in just a month or so after prior infection, but that is definitly not the norm." Will vaccine boosters work against BA.5? It usually protects pretty well from infection for a while, but not always." It protects you really well from severe disease. "Hybrid immunity, though - immunity from a combination of vaccination and infection - is pretty powerful. "When a variant is immuno-based, it's going to have an easier time infecting you if you've already been infected," Doron said. It could be it's just evading immunity better, just like flu strains replace each other every year." If you had omicron already, can you still get BA.5? "It's becoming dominant because it has a growth advantage over the other variants. There's even a rumor that BA.5 is as contagious as measles. "We continue to see new variants and subvariants become dominant, and there's a misconception that that means each and every one is more contagious than the last. Is BA.5 the most transmissable variant yet? Nearly eight months after the United States’ first COVID-19 wave sparked a government-ordered lockdown of communities and economies, a surge of coronavirus infections is causing Americans to be thrown back under harsh quarantine conditions.
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