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While this Monday, May 16 marks the end of the obligation to wear a mask in transport in France, the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) invites the various European countries to monitor the emergence of under variants of Omicron BA.4 and BA.5. We take stock with Dr Gérald Kierzek, emergency doctor and medical director of Doctissimo.
BA.4 and BA.5: less worrying sub-variants
It is through a press release that the ECDC expresses itself about the sub-variants of Omicron, including “the proportion in the European Union is currently low, but which will become dominant in the coming months”. Based on this observation, the ECDC expects a “significant increase” in the number of cases, without however predicting the severity.
For Dr Gérald Kierzek, “indeed, there is a good chance that these sub-variants circulate widely in Europe, but they are not “worrying” sub-variants because if their contagiousness increases, their virulence decreases, on the contrary. And so the good news is that these sub-variants give roughly the symptoms of a cold.”.
In France, this Friday, May 13, there were 32,773 new cases of Covid-19, a figure down 18% compared to the Friday before. “And these are probably underestimated figures compared to reality” for Dr. Kierzek.
BA.4 and BA.5 dominant in South Africa, BA.2 dominant in France
According to the South African authorities, these two sub-variants BA.4 and BA.5 will very soon be in the majority in the country over the next few days, because they have a competitive advantage. The latter would beprobably due to their ability to evade immune protection induced by previous infection and/or vaccination, particularly if this has waned over time“.
In France for the moment, it is the BA.2 variant which largely dominates, according to the latest bulletin from Public Health France, which also indicates that at “May 2, 2022, two cases of BA.4 and six cases of BA.5 were confirmed in France and were under investigation”. As a reminder, each time a new variant appeared, the scenario had been the same: a strong progression, quickly gaining other regions of the world and supplanting the previous strains.
Should we still test, vaccinate and sequence massively?
According to WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, these two subvariants were discovered because “South Africa is still doing the genetic sequencing of the virus that other countries have stopped doing”.
For Gérald Kierzek, sequencing is a good thing, but to be carried out randomly and not massively, for each virus sample. “It’s like massive testing, “test-trace-isolate” and vaccination of the entire population: these are strategies that don’t work, we know that now”.
According to the doctor, “there is no point in testing massively when the symptoms are mild. And concerning the vaccine, the next campaigns will have to target the fragile people”. There remains the question of the effectiveness of the vaccine on these sub-variants: will they be sufficiently protective? Gerald Kierzek thinks they probably need an “update” to boost their effectiveness against BA.4 and BA.5.
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Natural cycle of a virus
Finally, Dr. Kierzek recalls that mutations are natural in viruses: “They are in competition with both individual natural defenses – the immune system present in each of us – and collective. It’s a permanent struggle and when the virus can no longer penetrate its host, it mutates to try to find a new entry door. concludes the doctor.