Covid Quickly is a scientific American series.
This is a quick update on the COVID epidemic. We will show you the science behind the most important questions about the disease. We help you understand the research.
The person is named Lewis, he is also known as Tanya Lewis.
Josh Fischman is my name.
We are Scientific American's senior health editors. The new alphabet soup is likely to be around this winter.
We will talk about how protection can be added even if you have already had it.
That's right.
We're going into another winter. There are a number of new Omicron subvariants of the COVID virus. They're called Halloween scariants. We don't know what we know yet.
COVID cases have mostly been driven by different versions of Omicron since the Omicron variant first appeared last fall. The first one was B. 1.1.529. There was BA.1, BA.2 and BA.3.
About 12 percent of COVID cases in the U.S. are made up of BA.4.6, which descended from BA.4. The proportions are increasing.
In Singapore, a subvariant called XBB has been driving a surge in cases.
At least four new people. What should we be afraid of?
Anthony Fauci, Biden's chief medical advisor, said they were troubled. They are also growing fast like other versions. In the case of BQ. 1.1, it appears to be better at evading our immunity than it is at protecting us from vaccine-related infections.
We talked about last show about the concern about the treatments. It's not effective against the BA.4.6 variant if you give prophylactically to people who are immunocompromised. The FDA said that Bebtelovimab is not effective against BQ.1.
It's bad news for people with immune systems that can't make a strong response to vaccines.
That is correct. It is not known if the alternatives will arrive in time for a winter surge.
The experts think we are headed for another surge. What will the new variant do?
It is usually a few weeks before the U.S. that evidence cases start to increase in Europe. The new variant was arriving before this happened. Some people think the variant will speed things up.
How can people keep themselves safe?
Getting your booster shot is the best thing you can do. The new booster protects you against both the original strain and the newer ones, and it is likely to provide some protection against the newer ones as well. Less than 5 percent of eligible people in the U.S. have gotten the vaccine.
A lot of people are protected.
Lewis said it does. Many young children don't have a vaccine. There is still time to get one before the holiday season.
That's right.
Lewis talked about how few people are getting booster shots. There are a lot of possibilities. More and more people have gotten it already and recovered, and they don't worry about it anymore. They might think they have immunity against new infections. Is it true that they do?
It's sort of. Natural immunity is a reality. Research shows that hybrid immunity is not as strong as it could be.
Lewis wonders if people who have gotten a vaccine have better protection than people who haven't.
It's true, according to Fischman. The New England Journal of Medicine has some of the best data on this, from a big study done inQatar. It was able to track about 150,000 people. There is a strong system of health records in the country. Researchers were able to figure out who got Omicron and when. They had records of people who got the Pfizer or Moderna shots and didn't get the vaccine at all.
Lewis asked if they found any important differences.
The person said they did. Unvaccinated people had a higher risk of infections. People with previous infections are less likely to get a new one.
People who had just the two-shot regimen had the same risk. The scientists believe that people had the shots about 8 months earlier.
People who had an earlier infections plus three shots had the biggest advantage. Two shots and a booster. It reduced the chance of reinfection by 80 percent. That was true for both Moderna vaccines.
That is a great benefit. Was it able to keep people out of the hospital and reduce death rates?
He said it did. This type of immunity held off serious illness by about 80%.
A booster shot can help people who have had earlier infections.
Many of your symptoms are reduced by it. I can tell you that less symptoms is a big deal because I was laid up by Covid for two weeks.
The data comes from a study that looked at 1100 healthcare workers for 5 months. Those who got a booster on top of the original two shots were less likely to get sick. They were able to care for themselves at home. They didn't miss as many hours of work. This is compared with people who didn't get vaccinations.
Lewis wants to know if the boosters do anything to reduce transmission risk. There is a chance that the infection will be passed on to others.
The people seem to help. The viral load was knocked down by about a third. Scientists said that lower viral load doesn't mean less transmission. Other studies have linked that to it.
About 20% of the people with Omicron infections had no symptoms, so they were probably hanging around with other people.
That increases the chances of transmission.
He said it does. Boosters help in more than one way. Now is the perfect time to get one.
That's right.
You are up to speed. Thanks for watching our show.
You can come back in two weeks for the next episode. Check out sciam.com for the latest news.
This is a transcript of the show.
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