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[Preciouslife1]

https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/17/health/ba-2-covid-severity/index.html?fbclid=IwAR0pWh5dptsErY4xwOb_RaD1cGUbXqlrx3z9o6tHGfuHV6VX4eblmwlA08I

Resistant to monoclonal antibody treatments ....
The new study found that BA.2 can copy itself in cells more quickly than BA.1, the original version of Omicron. It's also more adept at causing cells to stick together. This allows the virus to create larger clumps of cells, called syncytia, than BA.1. That's concerning because these clumps then become factories for churning out more copies of the virus. Delta was also good at creating syncytia, which is thought to be one reason it was so destructive to the lungs.

When the researchers infected hamsters with BA.2 and BA.1, the animals infected with BA.2 got sicker and had worse lung function. In tissues samples, the lungs of BA.2-infected hamsters had more damage than those infected by BA.1.

How worried should we be about the new stealth Omicron? .

Similar to the original Omicron, BA.2 was capable of breaking through antibodies in the blood of people who'd been vaccinated against Covid-19. It was also resistant to the antibodies of people who'd been infected with Covid-19 early in the pandemic, including Alpha and Delta. And BA.2 was almost completely resistant to some monoclonal antibody treatments.
But there was a bright spot: Antibodies in the blood of people who'd recently had Omicron also seemed to have some protection against BA.2, especially if they'd also been vaccinated.
And that raises an important point, Fuller says. Even though BA.2 seems more contagious and pathogenic than Omicron, it may NOT wind up causing a more devastating wave of Covid-19 infections.
"One of the caveats that we have to think about as we get new variants that might seem more dangerous is the fact that there's two sides to the story," Fuller says.

The virus matters, she says, but as its would-be hosts, so do we.
"Our immune system is evolving as well. And so that's pushing back on things," she said.
Right now, she says, we're in a race against the virus, and the key question is, who's in the lead?
"What we will ultimately want is to have the host be ahead of the virus. In other words, our immunity, be a step ahead of the next variant that comes out, and I don't know that we're quite there yet," she said.
For that reason, Fuller says, she feels like it's not quite time for communities to lift mask mandates.
"Before this thing came out, we were about 10 feet away from the finish line," she said.