New COVID variant with immune escape potential confirmed in US, 22 other countries.
"The highly mutated SARS-CoV-2 BA.3.2 variant, which has been reported by at least 23 countries as of February 11, has been detected in nasal swabs collected from four US travelers"
"Continued genomic surveillance is needed to track SARS-CoV-2 evolution and determine its potential effect on public health."
That BA.3.2 is a zoonosis is important to recognize. As it shows continued pandemics in other species impacting us.
At some point it is very likely that near cousins - MERS, NeoCov, PDF-2180, hku4, or hku5 will hybridize with COVID in those animals or in humans and then result in a new SARS-CoV-3 strain that is 20-40% lethal with an R0 of 20 that will circle the globe before we even realize it exists.
The first clue will be the deaths. COVID isn't done with us.
Denis - The COVID info guy -
Sam