Contagious Omicron subvariants of the coronavirus — such as BA.1, BA.2, BA.4 and BA.5 — can escape antibodies from previous infections and vaccines.
The finding comes as the Biden administration considers whether to expand access to a second booster shot to all adults due to the spread of BA.4 and BA.5. Ages 50 and older and immunocompromised people over age 12 have been eligible for a second booster since March.
The research team assessed the properties of the subvariants and evaluated how a panel of seven COVID-19 vaccines could protect against the Omicron strains, including shots made by Pfizer, Moderna, Johnson & Johnson, AstraZeneca, Novavax, Sputnik V and Sinopharm. In particular, they found that BA.5 can outcompete other subvariants because its spike protein binds to the human receptor cell more than six times better than the original coronavirus strain found in 2019. They concluded that BA.5 is the most immune-evasive COVID-19 variant to date.
“We were able to look at essentially every single prominent vaccine platform in the world side by side and see that, despite the scariness of this variant, all of these vaccine platforms are going to elicit solid immune responses,” Bowen said.“When I was seeing the data after the third shot, I had to repeat it over and over again because I was just like, ‘Why am I not seeing that this is as immune evasive as other people have said?’” Bowen told.
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