During the pandemic, scientists have the evolution of the COVID-19 coronavirus. While some new variants and subvariants are disappearing, others are spreading.
Using various surveillance systems, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is intensively tracking new mutations and knows two that are of concern: BQ. 1 and BQ. 1. 1. The CDC refers to those offshoots of BA. 5 as “grandchildren of BA. “5”.
By mid-September, the two BQ mutations in combination accounted for just over half of infections in the United States. This proportion has increased rapidly. Now, CDC’s COVID Data Tracker data for the week ending October 22 shows that BQ. 1 and BQ. 1. 1 account for more than 16% of cases in the United States.
Meanwhile, BA. 5 has risen from nearly 90% of infections in August to just over 62%. BA. 4. 6 represents lately 11% and 6. 7% of cases are BF. 7.
Anthony Fauci, MD, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told CBS News, “When you get variants like this [BQ. 1 and BQ. 1. 1], you look at what their accumulation rate is relative to the variants, and that has a pretty awkward doubling time.
The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) predicts that BQ. 1 and its sublineage BQ1. 1 will be the dominant coronavirus strains in Europe from mid-November to early December 2022. Almost 1 in five cases in France is now attributed to a BQ variant.
In the United States, COVID-19 infections have recently noticed a downward trend. The CDC estimates that, as of Oct. 19, the current 21-day average of weekly new instances (39,803) is down nearly 31% from the past 21 days. Daily moving average of 57,564.
Bernadette Boden-Albala, MPH, DrPH, director and founding dean of the public fitness program at the University of California, Irvine, warns that new subvariants, along with more indoor organizing meetings as winter approaches and low booster vaccination rates, may threaten to oppose this national decline in infections and potentially accumulate hospitalizations and deaths.
“The subvariants known to date are derived from the omicron lineage, so it turns out that they cause less severe disease, but the difference is that they have a mutation in the receptor-binding domain that allows it to cross our number one immune line of defense. Dr. Boden-Albala explains: You may experience COVID-19 symptoms much more temporarily after exposure. In the future, the hope is that the new variants will also be linked to a less serious disease, but this is not a guarantee.
Lately, scientists are comparing the efficacy of new bivalent booster vaccines with those of these new subvariants. Bivalent injections are designed to oppose the BA. 5 and BA. 4 micron subvariants, as well as the original coronavirus.
According to CBS, Dr. Fauci said that since BQ. 1 and BQ. 1. 1 are similar to BA. 5, the new booster shots will “almost certainly” provide some cross-protection.
“However, knowledge of other people with perforated BA. 5 infection recommends that bivalent boosters will be less effective compared to those new BA. 5 variants,” says Benjamin Pinsky, MD, medical director of the clinical virology laboratory at Stanford Health Care. and Child Health in Stanford, California.
Based on foreign reports, the CDC is also largely tracking a newly known omicron sublineage called XBB, which is still very rare in the United States.
The Times of India reported on October 23 that COVID-19 infections caused by XBB have nearly doubled in India in one week. According to forecasts, the news source predicted that XBB could be the main subvariant in the country within a month.
In mid-October, Singaporean public fitness officials warned that XBB was the main subvariant circulating in the community.
On October 22, Eric Topol, MD, founder and director of the Scripps Research Translational Institute in La Jolla, California, tweeted that signs suggest the variant may be downhill in Singapore.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has expressed concern over a fact that suggests XBB has a significant ability to evade immune formula protections, such as vaccination.
“This worries us because we want vaccines used around the world to remain effective in preventing serious illness and death. So, the more this virus circulates, the more opportunities it has to change,” said Maria Van Kerkhove, PhD, an infectious disease epidemiologist. who is WHO’s technical lead for the COVID-19 response.
Immunocompromised Americans may be more vulnerable to XBB. In an initial (non-peer-reviewed) study published in early October on bioRxiv’s preprint server, researchers found that XBB had moved away from Evusheld, a remedy for tixagevimab more cilgavimab than the US. UU. La Food and Drug Administration has saved you from disease in immunocompromised people.
“The new variants (BA. 2. 75. 2, BA. 4. 6, BF. 7, BQ. 1. 1, XBB) have developed spike mutations that allow the virus to evade popularity through the monoclonal antibodies provided in Evusheld, the cocktail of prophylactic antibodies used for immunocompromised patients,” says Dr. Pinsky. “As those variants increase in prevalence, Evusheld will no longer be useful. “
Research published in bioRxiv also indicated that XBB is most likely resistant to bebtelavimab, a monoclonal antiframe used to fight coronavirus infection by preventing the virus from attaching to frame cells.
The National Institutes of Health issued a statement on Oct. 19 that also states that subvariants BQ. 1 and BQ. 1. 1 would possibly not be affected by bebetelovimab.
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