I have been worrying about this for days but don't have the spoons to dig in:

BA.3.2 lost its ability to bind tightly to ACE-2 receptors on cells [1]

Remember that Long COVID rates were much higher during Delta? Remember that Delta was much more prone to syncytia (not needing ACE2 at all) in part because it had reduced ACE-2 affinity?

syncytia formation via the highly fusogenic Delta spike promotes cellular senescence and extracellular cytokine release [2]

and I know I read (skimmed) a paper suggesting that this method of direct contact cell-cell transmission was driving Long COVID - aha here:

We propose the hypothesis that SARS-CoV-2 transitions to persistent infection, facilitated by syncytia formation [3]

[1] https://archive.md/HWOHt#selection-3205.38-3205.105
[2] https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10785701/
[3] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40535019/

#COVID #COVID19 #SARSCoV2 #CovidIsNotOver #BA32 #syncytia #syncytial

JWeiland is still on birdsite but if you are keeping informed about COVID, and especially if you have kids, this seems pertinent right now:

https://bird.makeup/users/jpweiland/statuses/2040311085371212036

A reminder that it is a deep injustice to force people of any age into contagious situations.

That applies to prisons, and it applies to schools.

#COVID19 #COVID #SARSCoV2 #CovidIsNotOver #BA32

Here's the latest variant picture for Europe (excluding the UK), to mid-March.

BA.3.2.* "Cicada" has continued growing to dominance at 44%

NB.1.8.1.* "Nimbus" fell to 28%.

XFG.* "Stratus" fell sharply to 19%.

#COVID19 #SARSCoV2 #EUR
🧵

Here's the latest variant picture for Canada, to mid-March.

XFG.* "Stratus" remained dominant, but fell to 47% frequency.

NB.1.8.1 "Nimbus" grew to 43%, posing a serious challenge for dominance.

#COVID19 #SARSCoV2 #Canada #XFG #Stratus #NB_1_8_1 #Nimbus
🧵

Here's the latest variant picture for the United States, to mid-March.

The XFG.* "Stratus" variant remained dominant, but fell to 67%.

NB.1.8.1.* "Nimbus" grew to 19%.

#COVID19 #SARSCoV2 #USA #XFG #Stratus #NB_1_8_1 #Nimbus
🧵

Here's the latest variant picture for New Zealand, to late March.

NB.1.8.1 "Nimbus" rebounded sharply from mid-March, finishing at 66%.

BA.3.2.* "Cicada" grew to 14%.

#COVID19 #SARSCoV2 #NZ
🧵

Here's the latest variant picture for Australia, to mid-March.

Several variants are churning around in a confused picture, without any one being clearly dominant.
XFG.* "Stratus" finished up at 30%.

JN.1.* + DeFLuQE’s late surge to 29% was all driven from South Australia.

NB.1.8.1.* "Nimbus" fell to 23%.

BA.3.2.* "Cicada" fell to 17%.

#COVID19 #SARSCoV2 #Australia
🧵

Here's the latest variant picture with a global scope, to mid-March.

The most interesting development in the last week or two has been the understanding that BA.3.2.* "Cicada" is preferentially infecting children.

Here’s the situation for New York (state), from February onwards. Among children (0-17), BA.3.2.* reached 17% (n=22), vs 2% among adults (n=12), so a ~7X higher rate among children.

Other states in the US have not reported enough BA.3.2.* samples to draw any conclusions.

#COVID19 #SARSCoV2 #Global
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