According to the latest data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, two new Omicron subvariants have become dominant in the US, and the coronaviruses has continued to evolve. The Omicron subvariant that dominated in the U.S. since the summer is the descendant of BQ.1 and BQ. 1.1. They now make up more than half of all infections.
The U.K., France and other European countries have both identified BQ.1 and BQ. 1.1 as subvariants of COVID-19.
Health experts want to know if the variant is more transmissible. Is it possible that it could cause more serious illness? Can the vaccines and treatments be used to fight it?
Monica Gandhi is an infectious disease specialist and a professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco.
Gandhi told Yahoo News that BQ.1 and BQ. 1.1 seem to be more transmissible because they have taken over and replaced other versions. She said that they don't seem to cause more severe disease than previous strains.
She said that since she works in a hospital, she can tell you that the disease is staying low because a lot of people have immunity.
During the last six months, so many people got Omicron exposed that our rates of hospitalization are low.
If there is a COVID-19 surge in the U.S. driven by the BQ.1 and BQ. 1.1 subvariants, it will be mild and short-lived, according to some infectious disease experts. In a post on his Ground Truths Substack, Eric Topol stated that France was the first country where the subvariants became dominant. In New York state, which has the most cases of BQ. 1.1 in the United States, there is no increase in hospital admissions. He said it's a positive sign.
Gandhi said that the greatest implications for both of the new strains are their ability to evade immunity. BQ. 1.1 has shown to be resistant to all available treatments. These therapies have been helpful for people with compromised immune systems who don't respond to the vaccine, and for people with a history of adverse reactions to the vaccine.
Paxlovid is an option for protecting this population. Many organ transplant patients can't take the pill because of how it interacts with other drugs. As BQ.1 and BQ. 1.1 grow in the U.S., people with weakened immune systems, such as cancer patients, could be more vulnerable to the drug.
Even though the new Omicron subvariants account for more than half of new cases, there are still other strains that respond well to these treatments.
Half of the cases are still BA.4 and BA.5. She said that there needs to be new treatments for this part of the population in the near future. There are no replacements for Evusheld.
It's not yet known how effective our current COVID vaccines are against BQ.1 and BQ. 1.1. The new bivalent boosters that are designed to target this and the BA.4 subvariant are likely to work against these new Omicron strains since they are the offsprings of BA.5.
Pfizer stated in a recent press release that it protects against Omicron subvariant BQ. 1.1. Adults 55 and over were found to have a ninefold increase in antibodies against BQ. 1.1 after receiving the bivalent booster. Moderna's bivalent vaccine gave protection against BQ. 1.1.
Health experts like Topol have pointed out that people over the age of 65 would benefit the most from the booster. Data from the CDC shows that most of the deaths from COVID last month were people in their twenties. He said that a high percentage of the deaths are preventable.
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