“BA.2.75”, baptized on social networks with the high-sounding nickname ‘Centaurus’, then bounced on the media, “is a ‘scariant'”. This is how Eric Topol, American scientist director of the Scripps Research Translational Institute in La Jolla, California, defines it, dusting off in a tweet a term he himself brought into vogue: a fusion of two words that should be scare or scary (fear or fearful) and variant (variant). The message is clear: the sub-variant of Omicron 2, which landed on expert radar for some dangerous paper mutations, is currently terrifying only for the way it has been presented in the media.
In fact, reports Topol on the basis of the latest reassuring data, “it is spreading nowhere beyond a couple of provinces in India and without BA.5”, the super contagious Omicron 5 that is driving the Covid summer waves in many countries, “to compete with”. In conclusion, Topol muses, “there will be other new variants to worry about, but it doesn’t seem like this is one of them.”
The US scientist is not the only expert to hold back on the true extent of the threat posed by BA.2.75. Tulio de Oliveira, who heads the Center for Epidemic Response and Innovation at Stellenbosch University in South Africa, and has closely studied the evolution of Sars-CoV-2, also via Twitter, exposes: “I disagree that BA.2.75 or Centaurus is worrying. Despite the hype from the media and Twitter. ”
Three reasons for thinking so, de Oliveira lists: “Very low increase in cases and deaths in India; it is not increasing in prevalence anywhere; no data suggesting a change in neutralization or pathogenicity.” “Don’t believe the hype!” She concludes, deflating what he defines as a frame.
Finally, the data expert, based in Melbourne, Australia, Mike Honey (also retweeted by Topol) uses the objectivity of the graphs to support the reverse on Centaurus: according to the last image he posted, which photographs the situation of the new sub-lineage BA.2.75, the result of a second generation evolutionary leap from Omicron 2, there are “some samples from other countries in recent days, but still no significant diffusion outside the states of Maharashtra and Haryana in India. The first ( Mumbai) continues to have the highest frequency, now at 37%, followed by Haryana at 25%. In other Indian states, BA.2.75 is mostly below 5% frequency, “he admits.
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