Just in time for fall, there’s a brand-new COVID variant making headway in the U.S.
https://fortune.com/well/2022/09/20/bf-7-new-covid-subvariant-rising-in-united-states-us-omicron-centaurus/

A new COVID strain started to create waves among virus trackers this week, outpacing nearly all other variants of interest scientists are tracking in the U.S. this autumn.

The Omicron spawn, which scientists have named BF.7—short for BA.5.2.1.7—comprised 1.7% of sequenced infections last week in the U.S., according to new data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Other variants jockeying for the top spot right now—held by BA.5, at 85%—include BA.4.6, which comprised 10.3% of infections, and BA.2.75, which comprised 1.3%.

Scientists are taking notice of BF.7 because it’s making headway in an increasingly crowded field of Omicron subvariants. For months they’ve watched BA.2.75—dubbed Centaurus by the Twitterverse—as a variant of interest with potential to surge this fall. But this week, BF.7 surpassed it.

Potentially more transmissible than BA.5...



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WHO warns ability to identify new Covid variants is diminishing as testing declines
https://www.cnbc.com/2022/09/22/who-warns-ability-to-identify-new-covid-variants-is-diminishing-as-testing-declines-.html

The World Health Organization on Thursday warned that it is struggling to identify and track new Covid variants as governments roll back testing and surveillance, threatening the progress made in the fight against the virus.

Maria Van Kerkhove, the WHO’s Covid-19 technical lead, said the virus is still circulating at an “incredibly intense level” around the world. The WHO is “deeply concerned” that it is evolving at a time when there is no longer robust testing in place to help rapidly identify new variants, Van Kerkhove said.

“Our ability to track variants and subvariants around the world is diminishing because surveillance is declining,” Van Kerkhove told reporters during an update in Geneva. “That limits our ability to assess the known variants and subvariants but also our ability to track and identify new ones.”

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Here’s How Effective the Original Vaccines Are Against Omicron
https://time.com/6215580/original-vaccines-effectiveness-against-omicron/

Researchers in Ontario analyzed data from more than 134,000 people, including those who tested positive for Delta and Omicron infections during December 2021. They found that people who were fully vaccinated (with two doses of an mRNA vaccine, from either Moderna or Pfizer-BioNTech) experienced a decline in vaccine effectiveness against both Delta and Omicron infections, but the drop was greater against Omicron than against Delta. Among the vaccinated, the shots’ effectiveness declined from 36% up to two months after the second dose of the primary series, to 1% up to four months later (or six months after the second dose).

Booster doses helped restore some of the vaccine’s effectiveness, bringing it back up to 61% against Omicron beginning a week after people received the booster shot.

“The bottom line message is that against Omicron, you really need three doses for optimal protection against severe outcomes,” says Dr. Jeff Kwong, senior scientist at ICES (a not-for-profit research institute) and the study’s senior author. “Two doses was good enough against Delta, but since last December, when Omicron took over, two doses does not provide quite enough protection.”