New data on BA.2.86: What to know
“Two independent labs have basically shown that BA.2.86 essentially is not a further immune escape compared with current variants,” Dan Barouch, MD, PhD, director of the center for virology and vaccine research at Boston-based Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, told the news outlet.
The lab tests showed people who had been vaccinated with monovalent shots, had gotten bivalent vaccines or who had recently been infected with an XBB variant were able to neutralize the strain as well as or a bit better than other circulating variants. In both lab studies, people with the highest degree of immunity against BA.2.86 were those who had recently recovered from an XBB infection, suggesting updated shots slated to roll out soon will be effective against it.
