Warning issued regarding symptom of new Covid strain emerging overnight
'While available vaccines are still considered our best protection against the virus at present, O'Neill says he thinks new will be developed before the expected winter surge'
Trinity Professor of Biochemistry, Luke O'Neill (
Image: Trinity Professor of Biochemistry, Luke O'Neill)
A professor thinks the latest strain of Covid-19 has new symptoms, which the public needs to better understand.
Luke O'Neill says the newly identified sign of the BA.5 variant has been identified as health officials urge the public to self-isolate at the first sign of infection.
Today the Trinity College professor told Newstalk's Pat Kenny that the strain - which has been linked to Omicron - has been wreaking havoc around the world.
As the summer surge rages, Irish authorities have yet to put in place further restrictions as vaccination rates are high and side effects less severe, reports the Irish Mirror.
The Irish professor said: "Most cases in Ireland at the moment would be BA.5, for example, the same in the United States. That's another curve thrown at us by this virus, and BA.5 is the dominant variant that currently exists.”
Picture:
Professor Luke O'Neill)Discussing the summer surge, he said it is now believed that there are key differences in reported symptoms - and people should be aware of them.
He said, "An additional symptom for BA.5 that I saw this morning was night sweats.
“The disease is slightly different because the virus has changed. There is some immunity against it, with T-cells and so on, and this mixture of your immune system and the virus being slightly different could give rise to to a slightly different disease - with oddly enough - night sweats being a feature.”
Although available vaccines are still considered our best protection against the virus at present, Professor O'Neill says he believes new vaccines will be developed before the expected winter surge.
“Pfizer and Moderna have both said they will have an Omicron vaccine by September and will have a BA.4/5 by October,” he explained.
"So when we get to that point, it would make sense to start using these new ones. But... the current one still offers good protection anyway.
'While available vaccines are still considered our best protection against the virus at present, O'Neill says he thinks new will be developed before the expected winter surge'
Trinity Professor of Biochemistry, Luke O'Neill (
Image: Trinity Professor of Biochemistry, Luke O'Neill)
A professor thinks the latest strain of Covid-19 has new symptoms, which the public needs to better understand.
Luke O'Neill says the newly identified sign of the BA.5 variant has been identified as health officials urge the public to self-isolate at the first sign of infection.
Today the Trinity College professor told Newstalk's Pat Kenny that the strain - which has been linked to Omicron - has been wreaking havoc around the world.
As the summer surge rages, Irish authorities have yet to put in place further restrictions as vaccination rates are high and side effects less severe, reports the Irish Mirror.
The Irish professor said: "Most cases in Ireland at the moment would be BA.5, for example, the same in the United States. That's another curve thrown at us by this virus, and BA.5 is the dominant variant that currently exists.”
Picture:
Professor Luke O'Neill)Discussing the summer surge, he said it is now believed that there are key differences in reported symptoms - and people should be aware of them.
He said, "An additional symptom for BA.5 that I saw this morning was night sweats.
“The disease is slightly different because the virus has changed. There is some immunity against it, with T-cells and so on, and this mixture of your immune system and the virus being slightly different could give rise to to a slightly different disease - with oddly enough - night sweats being a feature.”
Although available vaccines are still considered our best protection against the virus at present, Professor O'Neill says he believes new vaccines will be developed before the expected winter surge.
“Pfizer and Moderna have both said they will have an Omicron vaccine by September and will have a BA.4/5 by October,” he explained.
"So when we get to that point, it would make sense to start using these new ones. But... the current one still offers good protection anyway.
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