
Undercounted Covid-19 cases leave US with a blind spot as BA.5 variant becomes dominant
CNN
Official Covid-19 case metrics severely undercount the true number of infections, leaving the United States with a critical blind spot as the most transmissible coronavirus variant yet takes hold.
The Omicron offshoot BA.5 became the dominant variant in the US last week, according to data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the subvariant carries key mutations that help it escape antibodies generated by vaccines and prior infection, aiding its rapid spread.
With that will come "escalating numbers of cases and more hospitalizations," Dr. Eric Topol, a cardiologist and professor of molecular medicine at Scripps Research, said on CNNi Monday. "One good thing is it doesn't appear to be accompanied by the ICU admissions and the deaths as previous variants, but this is definitely concerning."