What s happening
The omicron variant of COVID-19 keeps changing, creating newer, more contagious variants. BA.5 seems to be the most contagious version to date and is causing most current COVID-19 cases in the US.
Why it matters
BA.5 is causing more reinfection in people who already had COVID-19, including earlier versions of omicron. It s also evading immunity from the vaccines.
What it means for you
BA.5 doesn t appear to be causing more severe disease than earlier variants, and the vaccines are still effective at preventing severe disease and death. To stay protected, get the booster shots you re eligible for and wear a mask in public.
The current form of the virus driving this summer s wave is BA.5, an extremely contagious subvariant of omicron. About 78% of current COVID-19 cases are caused by BA.5, according to data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And those officially counted are likely to be big underestimations because of the high number of positive results from at-home tests, which usually aren t reported.
At a White House COVID-19 Response Team briefing last week, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the president s chief medical adviser, explained how the virus that causes COVID keeps mutating, and that the virus has "essentially bumped one variant off the table after the other," which has led to a long parade of increasingly contagious subvariants of omicron. BA.5 is the newest, and highly problematic, mutation.
Though BA.5 "substantially" evades antibodies from prior infections and vaccines, Fauci said, being up-to-date with a booster (or two boosters if you re 50 or older) is still protective against severe disease and death. That s because research shows that BA.5 doesn t lessen the protection against severe disease compared with earlier versions of omicron. And though not much is known about its clinical severity compared with earlier subvariants of omicron, it doesn t appear to be causing more-severe disease, Response Team officials said.
In an effort to target the most relevant strain of virus causing COVID-19, vaccines based on the BA.5 subvariant (along with BA.4) will be the first choice for COVID-19 booster shots this fall. Response Team Coordinator Dr. Ashish Jha encouraged everyone to get a booster if they re eligible and haven t opted for one yet, because it won t affect people s ability to get vaccinated come fall or winter when new boosters start rolling out to Americans. What s more, COVID-19 treatments, including Paxlovid, are predicted to be effective still, and the US Test to Treat clinics are still up and running to connect people most at risk with prescriptions for treatments if they need them.
Here s what we know about BA.5.
Do the at-home tests detect BA.5?
Right now there s no reason to suggest that the at-home rapid COVID-19 tests (a few boxes of which are free when you order through the government s website) are less effective against BA.5 compared with earlier versions of omicron. Generally speaking, the FDA says early data suggests the antigen tests detect omicron but may have reduced sensitivity.