New Omicron variants with "Troublemaker mutation"?

This is how the subtypes are assessed

Created: 04/14/2022, 22:18

By: Yasina Hipp

The new omicron subtypes BA.4 and BA.5 are still unclear.

© picture alliance/dpa/Uwe Anspach

So far, experts have not agreed on how to assess the two new mutations of the coronavirus variant Omicron BA.4 and BA.5.

Munich – The Omikron variant replaced the more dangerous Delta variant in the pandemic at the beginning of the year.

Since then, however, the virus has remained dynamic and new subtypes are constantly developing.

Only recently did the World Health Organization (WHO) classify the two new mutations BA.4 and BA.5 as "Variants of concern".

Since then, specialists have been investigating how the two subtypes are to be assessed, whether their effects could be as dangerous as, for example, delta.

Various scientists have not yet agreed on the basis of the data available so far.

Coronavirus: epidemiologist detects dangerous mutation in BA.4 and BA.5

With a few exceptions, BA.4 and BA.5 also share most of the mutations and changes with the BA.2 variant of the coronavirus.

One mutation worries, among others, the epidemiologist and former Harvard researcher Eric Feigl-Ding: L452R.

This mutation has also been detected in the Delta variant.

Feigl-Ding describes L452R as a "troublemaker" mutation and refers to earlier warnings he himself had given. With a view to further developments, the researcher writes down whether BA.4 and BA.5 could even displace the already established variant BA.2 Twitter only: "Wait and see".

Other researchers give the all-clear: "No need to panic"

Christoph Spinner, specialist in internal medicine and infectiologist at the Klinikum Rechts der Isar in Munich, is less concerned.

"There will always be new variants, we have to adapt to that," emphasizes Spinner in the video talk with

.

However, this would not automatically mean that these are then also more dangerous than the previous ones, even if they are perhaps more easily transferrable.

None of the omicron variants known to date cause any severe disease progression.

This is also confirmed by Tulio de Oliveira, bioinformatician from South Africa, who, as of now, also gives the all-clear for BA.4 and BA.5: "There is no reason to panic".

So far, there has been no increase in hospitalizations and deaths in his country.

BA.4 and BA.5 were the first to be discovered in South Africa.

Denmark, Botswana, England and Scotland also recorded infections with BA.4.

In Germany there is still no official evidence for one of the new omicron subtypes.