--- title: BA.2.75.2 Variant: What We Know About 'Centaurus,' Vaccines description: The new version of the COVID-19 virus, BA.2.75.2, can evade current vaccines and treatments. Here's what to know about the subvariant. canonical: https://time.com/6216760/ba-2-75-2-centaurus-omicron-variant-vaccine/ author: Alice Park article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2022-09-26T20:12:00.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-24T14:48:48.610Z article:section: Health og:title: What We Know So Far About BA.2.75.2, the 'Most Resistant' Variant to Date og:description: The latest version of the COVID-19 virus can evade current vaccines and treatments og:url: https://time.com/6216760/ba-2-75-2-centaurus-omicron-variant-vaccine/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte33fc05e681647ff/698a35d5096a940dbf6acfd9/covid-19-variant-vaccine.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2155 og:image:height: 1212 og:image:alt: covid-19-variant-vaccine og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: What We Know So Far About BA.2.75.2, the 'Most Resistant' Variant to Date twitter:description: The latest version of the COVID-19 virus can evade current vaccines and treatments twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte33fc05e681647ff/698a35d5096a940dbf6acfd9/covid-19-variant-vaccine.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # What We Know So Far About BA.2.75.2, the 'Most Resistant' Variant to Date > Sponsored content. 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Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ## Video: Human Waste Could Help the Fight Against Future Infectious Disease Outbreaks [Watch (HLS stream): Human Waste Could Help the Fight Against Future Infectious Disease Outbreaks](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/4tX9TcVw.m3u8) (9:04)  _Published 2022-09-23. Wastewater surveillance uses local sewer systems to measure the health of the population and can be especially useful to detect infectious diseases that can be asymptomatic. The practice is currently being used to combat COVID-19 and could be a useful tool to fight Monkeypox and the resurgence of polio._  by [Alice Park](https://time.com/author/alice-park/)  ## Alice Park Senior Correspondent Sep 26, 2022 8:12 PM UTC  Using a syringe to attack the new covid-19 variant. A young doctor in a white protective glove holds a medical syringe and a vial. Using a syringe to attack the new covid-19 variant. A young doctor in a white protective glove holds a medical syringe and a vial.Getty Images  by [Alice Park](https://time.com/author/alice-park/)  ## Alice Park Senior Correspondent Sep 26, 2022 8:12 PM UTC Since the COVID-19 pandemic began, health officials have warned that the biggest barrier to controlling the virus would be its ability to mutate into ever more infectious and dangerous forms. The latest version raising alarms is an emerging subvariant of Omicron called [BA.2.75.2](https://www.who.int/activities/tracking-SARS-CoV-2-variants). It’s already gained the ability to evade the immunity provided by current vaccines and can’t be neutralized by many of the antiviral drug treatments available. So far, the strain has been [reported](https://outbreak.info/situation-reports?pango=BA.2.75) in 47 countries and in 39 U.S. states, where it still accounts for less than 1% of COVID-19 cases. Here’s what we know so far about BA.2.75.2. ## **Where did BA.2.75.2 come from?** BA.2.75.2, as its nomenclature suggests, emerged from the BA.2.75 subvariant. It’s growing quickly, particularly in India—although BA.2.75.2 accounts for only 0.5% of cases so far around the world. Because it shares many similarities with the existing subvariant, the [World Health Organization](https://www.who.int/activities/tracking-SARS-CoV-2-variants) has not designated BA.2.75.2 as a new variant but singled it out as an “Omicron subvariant under monitoring,” which means that health officials should prioritize tracking cases in order to hopefully prevent surges in infections. Some experts have unofficially started calling it Centaurus, after a [Twitter user gave it that nickname](https://www.gavi.org/vaccineswork/centaurus-what-we-know-about-new-covid-variant-and-why-theres-no-cause-alarm). ## **Why BA.2.75.2 is worrying public health officials** BA.2.75.2 has picked up three additional mutations from BA.2.75, two of which are where the virus binds to human cells in order to infect them. According to one [study](https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.09.16.508299v1.full.pdf) by Swedish researchers published Sept. 16 as preprint—meaning the research has not yet been peer-reviewed—these aberrations are helping BA.2.75.2 evade all of the currently available antibody treatments authorized by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration except for one: bebtelovimab. Made by Lilly, this monoclonal antibody treatment is given as an IV infusion to people with mild-to-moderate COVID-19 symptoms who are at high risk of progressing to more severe disease. But because the drug targets only a specific portion of the virus’ spike protein, there’s no guarantee that the virus won’t develop mutations to evade it, too. On Sept. 7 in the _New England Journal of Medicine_, Japanese scientists [reported](https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMc2209952) slightly more encouraging findings in their tests of BA.2.75 against available treatments. They too found that bebtelovimab could neutralize the variant, and also reported that some of the first antiviral treatments developed—remdesivir and molnupiravir—as well as the latest one, [Paxlovid](https://time.com/6208336/paxlovid-effective-older-adults/), also remain effective. But resistance is a feature of BA.2.75.2, which is why health officials are concerned. The Swedish scientists also reported that virus-fighting antibody levels from blood donors, some of whom had been vaccinated or recently infected with SARS-CoV-2, were five-fold lower against BA.2.75.2 than against the currently dominant Omicron variant, BA.5\. They also found that BA.2.75.2 was resistant to the antiviral combination therapy Evusheld. Taken together, the scientists concluded, this variant “effectively evades the current \[antibody\] immunity in the population” and “represent\[s\] the most resistant variant characterized to date.” ## **How well do vaccines work against BA.2.75.2?** Right now, the picture is incomplete. Human studies of the [latest COVID-19 booster shot](https://time.com/6215491/omicron-booster-if-had-covid-19/)—which targets two other Omicron subvariants, BA.4 and BA.5—have not been finished yet, and it’s not clear how effective they will be against BA.2.75.2, either. But there are hints from studies involving the original vaccine about what kind of protection people might expect if the variant becomes more widespread. David Montefiori, a viral immunologist at Duke University Medical Center who oversees testing of Moderna’s mRNA vaccine’s effectiveness against new variants, is now studying how blood samples from people immunized with Moderna’s vaccine stand up against BA.2.75.2\. In earlier studies against BA.2.75, the results were encouraging. In a [correspondence](https://www.nejm.org/doi/pdf/10.1056/NEJMc2210648) published in the _New England Journal of Medicine_ on Sept. 9, he and his team reported that while levels of virus-fighting antibodies against BA.2.75 were more than four times lower than levels against the original virus among people vaccinated with Moderna’s shot, they remained effective. However, BA.2.75.2’s three additional mutations “could potentially make the virus less sensitive to neutralization,” he says, “but we have to test it and find out.” Results from those ongoing studies, funded by both Moderna and the National Institutes of Health, are expected in October. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/6216760/ba-2-75-2-centaurus-omicron-variant-vaccine/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/6216760/ba-2-75-2-centaurus-omicron-variant-vaccine/"},"headline":"What We Know So Far About BA.2.75.2, the 'Most Resistant' Variant to Date","datePublished":"2022-09-26T20:12:00.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-24T14:48:48.610Z","description":"The latest version of the COVID-19 virus can evade current vaccines and treatments.","url":"https://time.com/6216760/ba-2-75-2-centaurus-omicron-variant-vaccine/","keywords":["COVID-19","healthscienceclimate"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte33fc05e681647ff/698a35d5096a940dbf6acfd9/covid-19-variant-vaccine.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Alice Park","jobTitle":"Senior Correspondent","url":"https://time.com/author/alice-park/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte33fc05e681647ff/698a35d5096a940dbf6acfd9/covid-19-variant-vaccine.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"covid-19-variant-vaccine","caption":"covid-19-variant-vaccine","creditText":"Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/covid-19/","name":"COVID-19"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/6216760/ba-2-75-2-centaurus-omicron-variant-vaccine/","name":"What We Know So Far About BA.2.75.2, the 'Most Resistant' Variant to Date"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Human Waste Could Help the Fight Against Future Infectious Disease Outbreaks","description":"Wastewater surveillance uses local sewer systems to measure the health of the population and can be especially useful to detect infectious diseases that can be asymptomatic. 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