previous Omicron sub-variants.
“The disease is slightly different because the virus has changed,” O’Neill adds. “There is some immunity to it — obviously with the T-cells and so on — and that mix of your immune system and the virus being slightly different might give rise to a slightly different disease, strangely enough, night sweats being a feature.”
So what are night sweats?
According to Mayo Clinic, night sweats are “repeated episodes of extreme perspiration that may soak your night clothes or bedding and are related to an underlying medical condition or illness”.
Does BA.5 cause more severe COVID illness?
There isn’t much research to determine how severe BA.5 is compared to previous variants. However, even a mild infection can lead to heavy fatigue and other symptoms that may be unpleasant and take time to recover from.
As with previous subvariants of COVID, you may have a higher risk of serious illness if you belong to one of the vulnerable groups. These groups include: people with underlying health conditions, people who are immunocompromised, pregnant people, and people over age 65.
If you are unvaccinated, partially vaccinated or haven’t gotten boosted, your risk for serious illness is also higher.
“COVID seeks out the unvaccinated and the partially vaccinated among us,” Dr. Shaffner says. “Those two groups continue to be the groups that are most frequently hospitalized.”
Do the current COVID vaccines protect against BA.5?
In short, vaccines will not keep you completely safe. However, they will lower your risk of developing COVID. Vaccines are also the best way to avoid severe illness and hospitalization.
As we know, the effectiveness of vaccines wane over time, particularly for older adults. Vaccines already on the market also may not be as effective for certain variants of COVID.
“That’s why people are working to update the vaccine, but in the meantime, what we see is what we got,” Dr. Schaffner says.
Pfizer and Moderna are currently working on boosters that will reportedly outperform current vaccines and provide better protection against Omicron’s highly infectious subvariants. Those boosters should start rolling out this fall, Dr. Shaffner notes.
How to protect yourself and those around you
If you begin feeling sick, you should treat it as a COVID infection, until you are certain it isn’t one. BA. 5 is a highly infectious strain that is rapidly circulating. If your first test is negative, keep testing to be absolutely certain that you don’t have COVID. It often takes several days post-exposure for a COVID infection to return a positive test, according to the CDC.
As previously mentioned, the best way to protect yourself from COVID is by remaining up to date with all your vaccinations and boosters.
“We can’t blow [COVID] off or think it’s going to disappear or that it’s gone,” Dr. Shaffner says. “The virus is in charge. The best response obviously is vaccines—they really work.”