A stealthy new COVID variant nicknamed "cicada" has slipped into Massachusetts wastewater, carrying enough mutations to dodge the latest boosters—yet it still hasn’t triggered alarms at the CDC.
BA.3.2, first spotted in South Africa last November, has now been detected in 132 wastewater samples across Massachusetts and 24 other states. Genomic scans show the variant is "highly divergent" from the dominant JN.1 lineage, with changes concentrated in the spike protein targeted by this season’s vaccines.
Dr. Robert H. Hopkins Jr. said:
"The number of mutations from JN.1 viruses makes it less likely that the current vaccines will be highly effective against Cicada, but we need more data to better answer this question."
Early lab work indicates the 2025-2026 formulations efficiently evade BA.3.2 antibodies, though protection against severe disease is expected to hold. The World Health Organization notes no rise in hospitalizations or deaths has been linked to the variant so far.
WHO said:
"Overall, available evidence suggests that BA.3.2 poses low additional public health risk compared with other circulating Omicron descendent lineages."
The CDC has not added BA.3.2 to its national variant tracker because prevalence remains below the agency’s threshold. Massachusetts wastewater trends also show post-holiday levels drifting downward, mirroring the national picture.
Hopkins added:
"It is possible we will see Cicada become the dominant strain in the U.S., but that is by no means certain. I have heard some concern raised about the possibility that it could drive a U.S. summer surge."
Andrew Pekosz said:
"If it had really special advantages, we’d probably have seen it take off and dominate globally relatively quickly. We didn’t see that, but it’s not going away, so it’s something to keep an eye on."
Scientists emphasize that while COVID-19 continues to evolve, BA.3.2 has yet to demonstrate the transmissibility or severity edge that would warrant emergency measures. Surveillance teams will keep sequencing wastewater and clinical isolates to watch for any shift.
Source: Boston
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