How effectively? Well, even people who have COVID-19 antibodies from a previous infection or vaccination still have pretty much zero protection against orthrus, Oakeson said, adding it also does a “really good job” of binding to cellular receptors.
Those two attributes mean the latest version of the omicron variant that sent COVID-19 cases soaring to record levels just over a year ago could spark another huge surge. Oakeson said it’s not yet known whether CH.1.1 infections are more severe.
“It’s still kind of early on with this,” he said, adding, “It’s hard to say right now that it’s going to be more severe.” But even if the severity turns out to be similar to previous versions of omicron, orthrus could still spell trouble.
“What we don’t want to see is like we had with the original omicron variant, that huge spike in cases that then relates to a huge number of people in the hospital and a huge number of deaths,” the chief scientist said. “We don’t want to see that again.”
