New York Times "Bracing for the BA.2 Wave"24 Mar 2022 07:47
New York Times 24th March:
Bracing for the BA.2 wave
Barely two months after the Omicron wave, U.S. epidemiologists are already warning of another swell in the pandemic.
Though Covid case numbers are falling in most of the country, scientists warn that the quiet may soon give way to another surge, driven by an Omicron subvariant, BA.2. It is already fueling an increase in cases in 18 countries, including Britain, France, Germany and Italy.
There are still many question marks about a potential BA.2 wave. To understand what might lie ahead, I spoke with my colleague Benjamin Mueller, a health and science reporter.
What do we know about BA.2?
We know that BA.2 is more contagious than the version of Omicron that spread through the U.S. this winter. We know that some places like New York City are seeing early signs of cases ticking up, though at very low levels overall. And BA.2 is quickly becoming more prevalent in some places. But whether that turns into a wave — as some countries in Europe are seeing — is hard to know for sure.
What’s the worst case scenario?
A worse-case scenario is that the U.S. follows the path of the U.K., where not only have cases surged, but so have hospitalizations.
The U.S. has vaccinated and boosted people at lower rates than Western Europe. Even now, Americans are dying from Covid at far higher rates than people in Western Europe. And experts worry that those low booster and vaccination rates, especially in older people, could put the U.S. in a vulnerable position once BA.2 takes hold.
Plus, there’s the fear that even though some parts of the U.S. have effectively been without restrictions for months, reduced masking in other places could help speed a rise in cases.
* Just a couple of paragraphs from a longer article.
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