Stiko boss
Mertens: Omicron subtype BA.2 “could be worrying”
According to new findings, the omicron subtype BA.2 seems to differ significantly in certain properties from the corona subvariant BA.1, which has been dominant in Germany so far. Photo: Henning Kaiser/dpa
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The seven-day incidence in Germany continues to fall. But has the omicron wave broken? The Stiko is now looking at the new omicron subtype BA.2 with concern.
According to the chairman of the Standing Committee on Vaccination (Stiko), the omicron subtype BA.2 of the coronavirus could “become worrying”.
“We don’t know yet if and how much,” said Thomas Mertens of the “Schwäbische Zeitung” in Ravensburg. According to data from laboratories and infection monitoring, however, BA.2 is transmitted more easily. In addition, experiments with infected animals indicated that antibodies against the sub-variant BA.1, which is mainly widespread in this country, “neutralize the sub-type BA.2 less well”.
There is still no clear clinical data on the question of whether subtype BA.2 causes people to become more ill than BA.1, said Mertens. “In the worst case” it could be “that BA.2 leads to a renewed increase, an extension of the current wave of infections and more diseases again”.
In any case, vaccination against Corona remains “our key tool” to get the pandemic into the endemic phase, emphasized Mertens. In this phase, the “entire population” would no longer be vaccinated all the time, but primarily those who were at high risk of developing a serious illness.