Omicron 5 more contagious but less serious? The opinion of the experts

The sub-variant of Omicron BA.5 pushes the infections from Covid-19 in Portugal and Germany. But according to data from the American Johns Hopkin University, there is no increase in deaths and gavi cases. A sign that bodes well. From Bassetti, to Pregliasco to Gismondo, here’s what Italian virologists and experts think. Read also According to Pier Luigi Lopalco, professor of hygiene at the University of Salento, “if a variant spreads it is because it has taken on characteristics that determine some advantage: either because it more easily infects cells, or because it manages to evade defenses more easily given by a previous infection or vaccination “. “The fact that” sub-variant BA.5 “infects more easily – explains Adnkronos Salute – does not mean that it causes more serious illness. But, as usual, if thanks to the greater diffusion it reaches a fragile patient, the consequences unfortunately we know “, underlines Lopalco. Matteo Bassetti also recalls that “the Omicron BA.5 variant has increased cases in Portugal, but not deaths and serious patients. It is much more contagious than the previous ones, but this uniqueness does not affect the severity of the disease. The data South Africans tell us that the duration of hospitalization is shorter, that the severe forms are less “. “Basically in the autumn we could have more infections, but not the severe forms. It is the natural evolution of this virus that will have to make us ready for vaccination in the winter. But at the moment BA.5 will not put our summer at risk, that it is right to continue to live as free as possible, after 2 years where things have not gone as they should have, “the director of the Infectious Diseases Clinic of the San Martino Polyclinic in Genoa told Adnkronos Health. And virologist Fabrizio Pregliasco, a professor at the State University of Milan, also talks about natural evolution. “Omicron 5 is even more contagious than the other ‘versions’ of Sars-CoV-2,” but the symptoms “it causes” are essentially the same, because it is not that a virus can change its characteristics in an obvious way. a little less bad “and this shows that” all in all this virus is following the most natural path: the one that leads it to greater contagiousness, combined with greater benevolence “, he underlines to Adnkronos Salute. For the expert “it is presumable that” the sub-variant BA.5 “will become prevalent, precisely because it has favorable evolutionary characteristics”. And looking at autumn, “except for more threatening variants that we remember, they may emerge by chance, because the virus is not intelligent”, according to the health director of Irccs Galeazzi, the fixed point is that “Covid will be there. I keep thinking that we will have to. wait for a wave pattern – he reiterates – like those produced by a stone in a pond “. Also optimistic Maria Rita Gismondo, director of the Laboratory of clinical microbiology, virology and bioemergency diagnostics at the Sacco hospital in Milan, for which Omicron 5 could represent the ‘swan song’ of the Covid-19 pandemic. The characteristics of the sub-variant BA.5, which together with its ‘sister’ BA.4 fueled a fifth wave of Covid in South Africa and is now also circulating in Europe with a surge in cases, for example in Portugal, are in fact “in full harmony. with what – underlines the expert at Adnkronos Salute – based on the history of the epidemics is the phase of the pandemic tail “. “The tails of pandemics – highlights the microbiologist – are usually characterized by viruses that have a very attenuated aggression in terms of associated disease, but a much greater infectivity precisely because the pathogen tries to preserve itself”. This is why Omicron 5, which “will certainly spread everywhere because it is very contagious, must not worry us as it is not very serious”, reassures Gismondo. His vision is optimistic even thinking about next autumn: “If things stay this way, as we hope”, the return of the cold season “should not reserve us any particular problems – he explains – Surely we will have more infections, but not serious pathologies. in which the virus should have a tail, we have the tools to deal with it “. “If Omicron 5 really confirms its ability to spread more than the previous variants, there will again be an increase in infections sustained by this virus. And we will notice it, even if it is not easy to estimate when this will happen,” he explains to Adnkronos Health. Massimo Galli, former director of the infectious disease department of the Sacco hospital in Milan. Therefore, it is difficult “to predict when exactly there may be a net increase in cases due to Omicron BA.5. It is possible that it will be in autumn. But until autumn many things can happen – specifies the specialist – there is in between an austral winter. There are countries where the vaccination rate is low and this is not an element of reassurance, both for the ‘rush’ of the virus’ and for the development of variants “.