Experts Mixed on Risk of “Centaurus” Omicron Subvariant

BA.2.75 is spreading rampantly in India and has so far reached at least 20 other countries, but it doesn’t seem to be outcompeting other Omicron SARS-CoV-2 subvariants.

Written byDan Robitzski

| 3 min read

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A translucent illustration of the BA.2.75 subvariant of SARS-CoV-2 against a black background

Artist’s rendition of BA.2.75

Image credit:© ISTOCK.COM, UDOMKARN CHITKUL

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The Omicron subvariant BA.2.75, also dubbed Centaurus—seemingly because some guy on Twitter decided it should be—continues to drive up the number of COVID-19 cases in India, where it was first detected in May.

There, the subvariant seems to have some sort of competitive advantage over BA.5, the subvariant largely responsible for the latest ongoing wave of coronavirus infections around the world, Catholic University of Leuven evolutionary biologist Tom Wenseleers tells Nature. The BA.2.75 subvariant has also made its way to over 20 other countries, including several in the Americas and Europe. Still, experts are mixed on how much of a threat it will pose to the rest of the world amidst and in the wake of the BA.5 surge, the outlet reports.

“It’s clearly growing pretty well in India, but India hasn’t got much BA.5, and it is still very unclear how well it fares against [that],” Tom Peacock, a ...

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Meet the Author

Dan Robitzski
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Dan is an award-winning journalist based in Los Angeles who joined The Scientist as a reporter and editor in 2021. Ironically, Dan’s undergraduate degree and brief career in neuroscience inspired him to write about research rather than conduct it, culminating in him earning a master’s degree in science journalism from New York University in 2017. In 2018, an Undark feature Dan and colleagues began at NYU on a questionable drug approval decision at the FDA won first place in the student category of the Association of Health Care Journalists' Awards for Excellence in Health Care Journalism. Now, Dan writes and edits stories on all aspects of the life sciences for the online news desk, and he oversees the “The Literature” and “Modus Operandi” sections of the monthly TS Digest and quarterly print magazine. Read more of his work at danrobitzski.com.
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