![]() ![]() “However, as we know with COVID, reaching herd immunity and having it be protective is a little bit complicated because there have been reinfection cases and our immune systems do seem to wane over time even with the vaccine responses, even with normal healthy immune systems.” “But potentially that could help skew things toward herd immunity where a community has protection from a virus because so many people have immune responses or infection with immune responses. ![]() “This suggests that low rates of omicron variant infection awareness may be a key contributor to the rapid transmission of the virus within communities,” said Pham. Others aren’t even aware they are carrying the virus.įor example, one study from September 2021 to May 2022 testing the blood of adults showed that, of those who had serological evidence of recent infection with COVID-19, 56 percent reported they were unaware they had an infection, and 10 percent had mild symptoms they thought were a common cold. Some may have symptoms such as cough, fatigue, runny nose, sore throat, headache, shortness of breath, and fever. Their replication advantages also allow them to produce higher viral loads.Īnother reason for the high transmissibility of the omicron variants is that they present differently in people and therefore are more readily passed because people don’t know they’re infected. Subvariants of omicron, including BA.4 and BA.5, have mutations in the spike protein allowing them to elude immune response antibodies raised through infection with prior vairants or vaccination. “Variants are expected because a virus will always try to borrow and change and try to find ways to become more infectious,” said Pham. SARS-CoV-2 variants have evolved from beta to delta to omicron and its subvariants. Part of the reason why the virus continues to circulate at such levels is that it is adapting to evade being eliminated by antibodies. continue to decrease and level off, virus transmission rates remain significant, with about 30 percent of communities experiencing a high level of transmission and about 43 percent a moderate level. While hospitalizations and deaths due to COVID-19 in the U.S. Michele Pham, University of California San Francisco Associate Chief of Allergy and Immunology for Primary Immunodeficiency, provided an overview of SARS-CoV-2 infections and variants and shared the latest vaccine protocols and therapies. In an Immune Deficiency Foundation (IDF) COVID-19 Update Forum, Dr. ![]() ![]() With fall approaching and indoor activities once again picking up, pay close attention to transmission in your local community and pursue as many defenses as you can against the virus. After a surge of COVID-19 cases in the winter, the number of cases in the United States is lower – but that doesn’t mean it’s time to let your guard down. ![]()
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