New covid variant BA3.2 detected in half of U.S. states: Is the covid vaccine effective?

It’s been six years now since the rapid worldwide spread of the then-novel covid-19 virus prompted governments to impose lockdowns to slow its march and ease the strain on overwhelmed hospitals. Despite the development of vaccines, the bug is still moving through the population, although not causing the mass panic of the early days and months.

The virus, since the beginning, has been mutating as it moves from host to host attempting to evade immune responses, be them the result of previous infection or vaccination, or natural. Currently, the dominate variant is XFG, a hybrid strain of two Omicron subvariants.

However, health officials are monitoring a new highly mutated variant BA3.2 that was first detected in the United States last summer through a CDC program testing travelers, but the first clinical detection in a patient occurred in January this year. In a recent report, the CDC says that the strain, named ‘Cicada’, for “lurking underground” for months, has now been found in wastewater samples from 25 states.

Is the covid vaccine effective against BA3.2, ‘Cicada’?

The CDC states that it is keeping an eye on the spread of ‘Cicada’ as “BA.3.2 provides valuable information about the potential for this new SARS-CoV-2 lineage to evade immunity from a previous infection or vaccination.”

The concern is that vaccines are typically designed to protect people from the most common current strains, which over the past two years have come from the JN.1 lineage. But BA.3.2 has 70 to 75 mutations making it genetically distinct.

“The number of mutations from JN.1 viruses makes it less likely that the current vaccines will be highly effective against Cicada” said Dr. Robert H. Hopkins, Jr., medical director of the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases, speaking to USA TODAY. “But we need more data to better answer this question.”

“It is possible we will see Cicada become the dominant strain in the US, but that is by no means certain,” he added. “I have heard some concern raised about the possibility that it could drive a US summer surge.”

Even so, it is wise to get vaccinated or a booster to help aide your body in fighting off covid, or any other respiratory disease. While they might not be one hundred percent effective, it could mean the difference between a couple days in bed, a hospital visit or worse.

What are the symptoms of BA3.2, ‘Cicada’?

So far there are no new notable symptoms of Cicada. Like previous and existing strains you show watch out for coughing, fatigue, headache, runny/stuffy nose, sneezing, and sore throat. Also one of the key characteristics that distinguishes covid from other ailments, changes to one’s sense of smell and taste that have affected some people who have been infected.

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