there is thought there could be even new mutations. it looks like that bay. we know of ba.1 and ba.2, there s all these numbers, there s ba.2.12.1, there is two more that are starting to circulate in south africa pretty significantly and they are no doubt going to come here. we have to assume when we see these things happening in other places around the world, viruses don t they cross borders, they don t discriminate in this way. take a look at what s happening in south africa, this is what gave us the clue about omicron in the first place, going back to the end of last year. saw that, okay, that s coming. if you look at the right side of that screen you start to see the numbers tipping up again. that is going up cases, but also an increase in hospitalizations, john. important. about a third of people in south africa are vaccinated, but let me show you the next screen which i think tells an important story here. they have these significant waves, you know, many people in the countr
You may be at risk of catching new COVID subvariants BA.4 or BA.5 even if you had the original omicron, as virologist Alex Sigal told DW's Science Unscripted.
restrictions. the mental health damage. the depression. the anxiety, the substance abuse. bret: last thing really quickly. you know, we hear other things, other subvariants that are, you know, popping up. but nothing is on the board right now that suggests that we re going to have to reverse where we are heading, right? absolutely not. the ba 2 vary divlant we are all talking about in south africa, 86% of the cases. no skyrocketing of cases. what science is showing about that subvariant is that it spreads more rapidly but it doesn t get you more sick. so in an area like the united states, where have already seen a ton of the ba 1 variant. it s only 4% of the cases. the vaccine works against it. the same as it does against the other. we got to watch out for too much fear here. the science doesn t back that these new subvariants are a problem. do we have to keep our eye on the sphwhal do we have to look to africa and see if there is something else coming? yes. but that s different th