At the end of 2019, the world was met with a challenge, one which some states would handle better than others. This challenge was Coronavirus, a virus that started in China and soon infected and affected the entire world. Millions to billions of people were put into quarantine and many people lost their jobs because it wasn’t deemed safe to leave one’s domicile anymore.
Millions of people around the world died, with hundreds of thousands of people dying daily in dozens of different countries. However, the focus of this article will be on the United States of America and the new variant affecting it at present. This variant is named the BA.5 or the Omicron variant and it has recently made up nearly 54% of all the country’s Covid-19 cases.
This new variant is reported by the CDC to be more resistant to the latest batch of vaccines, so it could infect those that were thought to already be in the clear from contracting the virus. Currently, the FDA and the CDC are generously funding vaccine research so that they can create new vaccines that could better combat this new variant. There are some promising results; some sources give a prediction for the distribution of new vaccines as early as next October, which would be in time for the worst season for illness in the United States: flu season. This is when the highest number of infectious illnesses are reported, so these predictions bode well for the state.
The vaccines are especially needed because the new variant has been reported to be able to neutralize antibodies already present in the body, either from contracting the disease or from getting the vaccine. Researchers say the situation could worsen if the virus continues to mutate and grow into a possible new variant, so updated vaccines are highly recommended.
The most common symptoms of the new variant are as such: runny nose, sore throat, headache, persistent cough, and general fatigue. Just like the previous variants of the virus, it is possible that you could be asymptomatic and should exercise caution if exposed to those that test positive. With all this in mind, it would be safe to say that those in the United States should heed further news coming from the CDC or FDA and seriously consider receiving the updated vaccine whenever it becomes available.
Edited by Abbie Vauls
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