Symptoms from the BA.2 variant aren’t clear-cut, doctors say

The coronavirus symptoms you experience from the BA.2 variant — a subvariant of the omicron variant — may depend on your vaccination status.

Why this matters: The BA.2 variant has slowly become a more dominant variant in the United States, with a potential slight uptick expected in the United States.

Driving the news: Dr. Jasmine Plummer, a genomics researcher with Cedars-Sinai, told KABC that the BA.2 variant spreads faster than the original omicron variant, but it might not make you sicker.

Symptoms: So far, it doesn’t appear the BA.2 variant makes people suffer more severe COVID-19 symptoms.

• “If you’re vaccinated, it seems to be more milder symptoms, and I’m very hopeful that we’re not going to have an additional strain on the health care system,” she said.

The bigger picture: Dr. Leana Wen, an emergency physician and medical analyst, told CNN those vulnerable populations may need to worry about the BA.2 variant more than others.

• Wen told CNN anyone who is “vulnerable to severe illness from COVID-19 despite vaccination should be concerned about the coronavirus in general.”
• She said that “COVI-19 infection will result in mild illness” for most people.