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in collaboration with
Dr Gérald Kierzek (Medical Director of Doctissimo)
Medical validation:
July 09, 2022
They are numerous and varied… and are arriving this summer. The sub-variants of Covid-19 – BA.2.12.1 and BA 4 and 5 – have made significant progress in the world and on French territory. Should we be worried about it? Let’s take stock with Dr. Kierzek, emergency doctor and medical director of Doctissimo.
According to the latest bulletin from Public Health France, BA.5 has become the majority in the country. As for the BA 2.12.1 variant, the latest in the Omicron family, it has spread like wildfire in the United States. However, should we be worried about it? Answers.
BA.2.12.1, BA.4 and BA.5: more dangerous subvariants?
The seventh wave of the Covid-19 epidemic is accelerating in France and cases of contamination are increasing. On July 5, more than 200,000 cases of Covid-19 were thus identified on French territory, according to the Minister of Health. In question ? The sub-variants of Covid-19, such as the famous BA.5, which has become the majority.
For Dr. Kierzek, this progression of the sub-variants is not to be feared: the latter would prove to be less dangerous than their predecessors.
“BA.2.12.1 and BA.4/5 have two common characteristics: greater contagiousness and antibody escape. strong between the number of contaminations and the low hospitalization rate”says the emergency doctor.
Another good news: the sub-variants “tend towards the natural evolution of the virus, that is to say a weakening of it”.
Indeed, when a virus tries to survive – by trying to evade vaccines and other antibodies – it replicates and weakens. The sub-variants are therefore degraded forms of the virus “and Omicron is no exception”, emphasizes Dr Kierzek.
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Should we be worried about it?
Should the successive announcements concerning these new variants therefore worry us?
“No, the word “variant” should not worry. BA.2.12.1 and BA.4/5 are certainly more contagious, but they are less virulent”assures Dr. Kierzek.
A finding shared by Tulio de Oliveira, virologist at the University of Kwazulu-Natal in South Africa, whose team announced the discovery of Omicron at the end of 2021.
“The BA.4/5 wave in South Africa did not result in many hospitalizations and deaths due to high population immunity”he clarified on Twitter, before adding “Of course, we don’t know the long-term effects…”
In France, from an “immunity” point of view, the previous BA.2 wave could have been useful, according to Santé Publique France.
It “could indeed confer better protection against BA.4 and BA.5”, concludes the agency.