Quote Originally Posted by Lencoboy View Post
Fairly recently there's been 2 new Omicron subvariants discovered (one of them is called EG.5 and the other called BA something-or-other) but up until now they've both been kept low-key by the mainstream media, and I only saw them covered fairly briefly on the Guardian site last week, and the BBC site did also briefly cover the EG.5 last week but more as a footnote within the 'Health' subsection and not even the slightest murmur within their main news homepage.

Even during the most part of last year (2022) the media would had still made a song and danced over any inkling of new Covid (sub)variants, but (for better or worse) barely even seem to bat an eyelid of late.

Although there's no evidence as yet that either sub-variant is any more harmful than existing/previous ones, and compared to earlier ones such as Original, Alpha and Delta, these 2 latest sub-variants are likely a walk in the park. I'm also surprised that up until now nobody else had mentioned those sub-variants on here, which they wouldn't have hesitated previously.
It's called BA.2.86.

So far there's no evidence that it's any more harmful than other/previous variants, according to experts, but it's still being monitored until further notice, and there's only a handful of officially recorded cases of it worldwide so far, including one in the UK, so in the meantime it's basically a 'wait-and-see' situation.

General media coverage of it (for better or worse) still remains low-key so far and also no signs of the general public being particularly fazed by it as yet.