Preliminary data from three separate research teams suggest the latest anxiety-inducing COVID-19 variant isn’t quite the threat many had feared.
BA.2.86 — or what some armchair epidemiologists have dubbed "Pirola” — does seem capable of escaping some of our prior immunity, but we’re not left defenseless.
Even better, data suggests the updated boosters, which are matched to a previous variant known as XBB, could still offer decent protection against the new edition.