--- 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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Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-health-2026q3/newsletters?i=1d3ebd57-215f-495d-83d1-2bb9695b55a3&cr=time-nl-health-2026q3-v1) ## 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. ## Transcript I've been covering covid-19 for two and a half years now. And one of the things that's really surprised me is how Wastewater surveillance is one of the more powerful tools that is emerge for tracking disease Wastewater surveillance, it's like spying on Wastewater which is exactly what it is. Which water is of course, what you get when you flush the toilet, it's equal parts, icky and cutting-edge science. But if you think about it, the waste that we flush the saliva, we spit out, when we brush our teeth and the water that drains for my shower is a rich source of information about our Collective health. First reaction is gross, disgusting, ecology at Queens College in New York. His lap collect Wastewater from around the city. It's really not that bad. It doesn't really smell very bad. We bring it back to the laboratory and we pasteurize it before we even open the bottle of comes in. Sheriff. It's not a dangerous river. Dirty or smell your people think about keeping their genetic material intact black. The toilet that goes into the system where wind up at is she would treatment plant. Facilities, collect Wastewater from entire communities. They are a good barometer of what viruses or bacteria might be circulating in those populations. And researchers can detect these pathogens even if people are not going to get tested at doctors offices or hospitals. But for example, there are eight million people in New York city. So it's useful to have a more precise way to measure who is sick and where we the pill with a device or the way to the bottom, this device has space for 24 hours and then tomorrow we will bring it out emissions. The health of the population that is using this sewer system Monica, Trujillo works in the same lab with John Dennehy, but she's collecting Wastewater on a more local level from the sewers in neighborhoods rather than in treatment plants. You have to say that. First of all, you are looking at the contribution of a complete different number, right? If you look at the wastewater treatment plant, you have everybody who lives that day on the southern part of Brooklyn. If you are looking at the hospital, like, Coney Island, right? You will be looking at the people that use the toilet in the Hat solution that you get the ability to cover a huge number of people for the creases, if you are looking at, you know, a smaller Gathering Using Wastewater to monitor for infectious diseases isn't actually knew it goes back to the 1940s. When epidemiologist, use the method to track and contain polio outbreaks in the United States, when officials saw polio spiking and waste water, they were able to boost vaccination responses in those areas. There is hope that the supply will be sufficient to vaccinate 61 million children by the end of the year Brave, Little Pioneers each, and everyone who took the shots Wastewater surveillance has also been utilized to track drug use which shows up in urine. That can help to mitigate the effects of something like the opioid epidemic, but it didn't really seem like Wastewater was getting the attention. It deserves until covid-19 making decisions about where to set up vaccination clinics how to keep schools open, When to require masking, all of that relied on knowing where outbreaks were happening, it's a nice truck 2020 Chevy have automatic sampler set up at multiple buildings and Solis Angeles and basically just sitting there collecting samples over the course of 24 hours, early adopters of expanded surveillance and as a pandemic dragged on and people turn to at home, swapping there was no way for public health officials to document spikes or even new variants Wastewater became an even more important early warning system. There have been instances where the same response to an important cases and declining concentrations of the virus and the Wastewater masking policies have been modified individuals testing A small study published in Jama Network, open shows that more than half of people. Infected with the Omicron Burien are not aware of their infection. The Wastewater surveillance could become an increasingly important way for communities to stay on top of cases. There are now sewage treatment plant surveillance programs in several States including in New York, California, Florida, Texas, and Illinois a bonus to this kind of data is that researchers can look for specific genetic sequences of viruses bacteria and other pathogens. That means they can also track any mutations or variance in the virus as well. Information, that helps determine whether existing vaccines and treatments will still work for the City of Houston in Texas. Use Wastewater to deploy their resources so they will look up Wastewater. They would see in this neighborhood. It seems like the numbers are going up. So what did they do say to everybody? Like the people who do vaccines, the people who are the, people who have connect to see the community and they try to emphasize that uses the masks people who were not vaccinated, try to convince them to be vaccinated. So it is a useful tool to try to meet gate. The effect of something that you know, it's going to happen. That is that the numbers are going up and of course, covid-19 is not the only disease. We have to worry about recently polio is discovered Again by a Wastewater in New York state. Last had a case of paralytic polio diagnosed in 1990. How about in June of this year? If a young adult was diagnosed with polio in Rockland County. Time, we look back at our Wastewater samples and we've identified a related virus in Santa Beginning in March, right up through July, monkeypox is also increasingly being tracked. This way I New York state city and also confirmed us three 679 cases. 639 of which are in New York City. Research has a Wastewater surveillance be beneficial and helping them to understand antibiotic-resistant. Pathogens that reduce the ability of the human body to fight disease. It could also be used to detect new strains of the flu before it affects the majority of the population and help in the development of effective vaccine. The list just goes on and on money and effort and time has been spent developing Wastewater as a source of Public Health. Information continues to be financially supported Republic. Private Foundation. It would be a shame if we were to lose these capabilities and then back to write about it, I think that it is going to other initiatives, and I think it is, if you think about the ability of sequencing, the human genome was absolutely can do it Wastewater. 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