The virus that causes COVID-19 brings us more variants, requiring some changes in the fight against it.
The BA. 5 variant of omicron, which has dominated the United States since the beginning of the summer, is fading rapidly. According to data released Friday, part of all cases in the U. S. The U. S. government is now due to two descendants of BA. 5, called BQ. 1 and BQ. 1. 1.
Not much is known about these two variants, however, the severity and duration of the disease resemble those of the other omicrons and are milder than the original and delta variants.
The biggest challenge of the new variants will be for other people immunocompromised due to illness or medication. Treatments designed to save you and treat infections in other immunocompromised people will be no different than BQ. 1 and BQ. 1. 1.
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Here’s what we know:
The omicron variant that caused so many infections last winter is still there, but it has split into several subvariants. The two subvariants, BQ. 1 and BQ. 1. 1, now account for some of the COVID-19 cases in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
BA. 5 now accounts for 24% of cases.
Laboratory studies recommend that viral offspring of BA. 5 and BA. 2, which come with all the new dominant variants, may cause more severe disease than BA. 1 or the original omicron, said Jeremy Luban, a professor of molecular medicine, biochemistry and molecular biotechnology at UMass Chan School of Medicine.
But it’s not transparent whether that’s true in the real world, he said, because lab studies can’t capture points like human behavior.
The new variants are obviously more transmissible because they take over and make other people unhealthy despite past vaccines and infections, he said at a news conference Thursday with other members of the Massachusetts Pathogen Preparedness Consortium.
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“Any kind of seasoning reduces your chances of having very poor health because of COVID,” said Dr. Brown. Kathryn Stephenson, an infectious disease expert at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston.
People who won the bivalent booster will be more opposed to a serious COVID-19 infection than those who are unvaccinated or who won a vaccine a long time ago.
In a study published Friday, Pfizer and its vaccine partner BioNTech say the latest booster increases the neutralization point of antibodies against BQ. 1 and BQ. 1. 1, which counteract infection.
Moderna reported on the effects of its booster earlier in the week, saying last week that its bivalent vaccine also showed “robust neutralizing activity” opposite to the BQ. 1. 1 variant, suggesting it provides some protection. opposite to newer strains.
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The World Health Organization uses the Greek alphabet as a classification formula to simplify understanding and stigmatize countries where strains of the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19 are identified.
The WHO named the original variant B. 1. 1. 529 after the letter omicron. In variants, the company assigns numbers to sublineages.
BA. 5 has been classified as an omichronic variant but has mutations that distinguish it from the omichronic subvariants, such as BA. 1 and BA. 2. BA. 5 is the parent strain of BQ. 1 and BQ. 1. 1.
The symptoms of BQ. 1 and BQ. 1. 1 appear to be the same as for other variants of COVID-19. Maximum non-unusual symptoms are exhaustion, fever, cough, congestion, shortness of breath, sore throat, nausea, diarrhea, and muscle aches or headaches. The loss of smell, which characterized COVID-19 infections, is no longer so unusual.
Before you get sick: Have those essentials at home to relieve cold, flu, and COVID symptoms
Theoretically, it is vulnerable if exposed to enough virus particles. But other people who have been stimulated or inflamed in the past three to six months are less likely to become inflamed in their backs and, in fact, less likely to suffer from serious illness, Stephenson said.
If your coronavirus test is positive or you feel unwell with related symptoms, the CDC recommends:
If you don’t have a fever for 24 hours and symptoms after five days, the CDC says you can end isolation but take precautions for another five days. This includes putting on a mask and avoiding travel.
It’s a “pretty scary” time for other people who don’t have a smart immune system, whether it’s because of their complex age, diseases like cancer or remedies that lower immunity, Luban said.
The latter two protective monoclonal antibodies work in opposition to the BQ. 1 and BQ. 1. 1 variants, said Jake Lemieux, an infectious disease specialist at Massachusetts General Hospital.
This includes Evusheld, which has been used to prevent other severely immunocompromised people from having very poor health with COVID-19. This is a big loss, he said: “I hope there is a drug of choice for prophylaxis that maintains its activity. “opposed to circulating variants. “
Doctors say that lately we are in a “triple epidemic” with 3 respiratory viruses, COVID-19, flu and RSV circulating simultaneously.
Flu and COVID-19 vaccination will restrict serious infections, said Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious disease specialist at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine.
Lately there is no vaccine or quick remedy for breathing the syncytial virus, or RSV, which can infect other people continuously and is especially harmful to children and the elderly, he said.
It’s not clear why, flu and RSV are circulating much earlier this year than before the pandemic, Dr. Brown said. Tina Tan, vice president of the Infectious Diseases Society of America, held a news convention Friday that included her and Schaffner.
“Whether he will come back or become general again (in the next few years), nobody knows,” he said.
Tan, pediatrician at Ann Children’s Hospital
“Vaccines want to be part of this new general to prevent Americans from having poor health with viruses and bacteria circulating,” he said. “This is the new general. “
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Extreme precautions are no longer necessary, experts say. But Lemieux said other people should be careful if they have other people who are very young, very old or immunocompromised at their holiday gatherings.
He suggests that visitors use a COVID-19 test at home before sitting together in an enclosed area and that, in case of poor health, other people do not stop by.
“I don’t need to say ‘cancel Thanksgiving,’ but I also don’t need to say ‘don’t worry about breathing viruses,'” said Lemieux, who is also involved in the spread of flu and RSV with turkey.
Some things to keep in mind:
►If you have chronic symptoms, get tested for COVID-19: Get tested because the antiviral Paxlovid, which can help you prevent serious illness in high-risk people, only works if given within five days of infection.
►If you’re traveling, wear a mask: Wearing a mask when traveling for celebrations also makes sense, said Dr. Brown. Lael Yonker, a pediatrician at Massachusetts General Hospital. He had his children wear masks before the holidays.
►Get a flu and COVID-19 shot: For Schaffner’s circle of family reunions, everyone wants to get a flu shot and get stronger against COVID-19, he said. “No one wants to be a feared propagator,” he said.
Experts had been hoping that the virus that causes COVID-19 will set itself on a seasonal trend and avoid mutation as much, but that hasn’t happened yet. Although existing vaccines are considered highly effective against serious diseases, they do not save all infections.
Next-generation vaccines, recently in development, may provide broader or longer-term coverage compared to COVID-19. Companies are also considering administering the vaccine through the nose rather than an injection, which could offer broader coverage rather than infection.
Pfizer and BioNTech announced Wednesday that they have begun an initial trial in another 180 people of a new vaccine candidate that they hope will expand and expand coverage against the virus. virus plus spike editing in the BA. 5 variant, as well as a non-spike protein that doesn’t seem to mutate as much.
The trial will come with another 3 doses and diversifications to see if the candidate vaccine is larger than the existing one.
Follow Adrianna Rodriguez on Twitter: @AdriannaUSAT.
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