BA.5 is also more infectious than previous subvariants.
The CDC currently does not have evidence showing that BA.5 is inherently more severe, but as cases go up , hospitalizations go up, and deaths, in turn, go up. Members of vulnerable populations are still at the greatest risk for severe infection, and when community spread is high , it’s important for people who are at lower risk to protect others by taking the sorts of precautions that have worked demonstrably well for more than two years.
The bottom line: Despite an urge to return to normalcy, the rise of BA.5 means it’s time to ramp up the precautions we know are effective. An upside to this otherwise grim situation is that we now know that a combination of masking, outdoor hangouts,, staying home when you’re feeling sick or testing positive, and getting vaccinated and boosted are shown to greatly reduce the spread of the COVID-19 virus. The same is true for the highly contagious BA.5 subvariant.
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