Maybe you’ve already met? 29% of new US cases week before last and 35% of new covid cases last week were these two variants. Apparently highly contagious and the vaccines provide some protection but not near what was there with earlier variants.
”They recently found that the BA.4 and BA.5 viruses were more likely to escape antibodies from the blood of fully vaccinated and boosted adults compared with other Omicron subvariants, raising the risk of vaccine-breakthrough Covid-19 infections.”
“BA.4 and BA.5 are the fastest spreading variants reported to date, and they are expected to dominate Covid-19 transmission in the United States, United Kingdom and the rest of Europe within the next few weeks, according to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control.”
“Moderna's bivalent Covid-19 vaccine booster, named mRNA-1273.214, elicited a "potent" immune responses against the Omicron subvariants BA.4 and BA.5, the company said Wednesday.”
I am going to add some URLs for more perspectives... because in the end, having been vaccinated can be much more protective than having a previous bout of COVID... even a B2 bout... and more likely to protect from need for hospitalization and death. HOWEVER, reinfections are increasing regardless and cases are up world wide... (EG: In US, yesterday's case counts was 200k...although not close to the record 300k in Jan 2021)
“Although antibodies from previous Omicron infection do not seem to afford much protection against the new variants, antibodies from vaccination appear to be much more effective.” https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/new-omicron-subvariants-are-spreading-should-we-worry#Vaccines-and-the-new-subvariants
BA.4/BA.5 are adept at evading antibodies. So if someone was recently infected with a BA.2 lineage, are they mostly protected against reinfection with BA.4 or BA.5? Probably not, infectious disease experts say. https://abcnews.go.com/Health/recovered-ba2-ba45/story?id=85517156
BA.4 subvariant 'concerning,' says epidemiologist… BA.4 and BA.5
June 2020… Expect a wave of cases, but not necessarily deaths. The omicron variant of Covid-19 has branched out into more transmissible and evasive versions. Earlier this month, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control upgraded the Omicron subvariants BA.4 and BA.5 to variants of concern. In a news release, the organization said the observed growth of the two subvariants is "likely due to their ability to evade immune protection induced by prior infection and/or vaccination, particularly if this has waned over time." “Evidence suggests it might be more transmissible than other variants, though it doesn't appear to be any more severe…“ https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/covid-19-subvariant-ba-4-1.6472022