evidence: Variant hunters flagged BA.2.86 this month after it was found in Israel. It has more than 30 gene changes from BA.2, its next closest ancestor, representing an evolutionary leap on par with the one the virus made from Delta to Omicron in 2021 or the leap between BA.2 and XBB.1.5, which circulated a year apart, the CDC said. [...] BA.2.86 appears to have emerged in humans only recently. The earliest known samples of the new variant were collected in late July. [...] It’s not clear whether BA.2.86 will be able to do that, the CDC says.