Professor Roberto Burioni speak today in a comment on Republic of the new sub-variant of Omicron BA.2.75. Which in the meantime has been renamed “Centaurus”On Twitter, according to a fashion among virologists that the doctor compares to that of meteorologists on perturbations. First of all Burioni explains that this variant, first identified in India last May, in some countries it is growing at the expense of the variant Omicron 2 (from which it derives) of Coronavirus. Then, it possesses numerous mutations which might give it some unwanted capabilitiesas the greater contagiousnessan increased ability to reinfect the recovered and vaccinated or even an augmented one pathogenicitywhich could cause more serious illness.
But, warns the virologist of San Raffaele, for now we speak only for hypothesis. Centaurus, for the moment, has been classified by the WHO as a “variant under observation” and therefore not yet as “worrying”. And this is because despite the news of these days the sub-variant has not yet proved to have concrete elements which allow it to be defined as one threat. To date, there are no data that certify the greatest transmissibility.
But right now two are his worst enemies. One is the vaccine, which works against Omicron and therefore it is very likely to provide protection against the sub-variant. The second enemy is precisely there variant BA.5. Centaurus he has to beat it and it is already extremely contagious. Finally, how to defend yourself: caution in closed and crowded places, air exchangetimely use of antivirals e vaccination (with third and fourth dose) on the carpet are the weapons to use. Waiting for certain data.
