As the holiday season comes to an end and COVID-19 instances increase, a variant known as JN.1 has emerged as the most frequent strain of the virus spreading across the United States. According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, JN.1, which evolved from the variant BA.2.86 and was first detected in the United States in September, accounted for 44% of Covid cases countrywide by mid-December, up from roughly 7% in late November. To some extent, this jump is to be expected. “Variants take some time to get going,” said Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious disease specialist at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. “Then they speed up, they spread widely, and just when they’re doing that, after several months, a new variant crops up.”
COVID-19 is still a “serious public health threat,” particularly for those who have always been at high risk of severe disease
According to a CDC report published Dec. 22, JN.1’s momentum this month shows that it may be more transmissible or stronger at evading our immune systems than other versions currently circulating. According to the EPA, COVID-19 is still a “serious public health threat,” particularly for those who have always been at high risk of severe disease, such as elderly adults, babies, persons with impaired immune systems or chronic medical disorders, and pregnant women. According to scientists, JN.1 does not appear to cause serious disease in the majority of other people, however even a mild case can make you feel “quite miserable for three or four days,” Schaffner said. The symptoms of a JN.1 infection are similar to those of prior infections. The symptoms of a JN.1 infection are similar to those caused by previous Covid variants, including a cough, fever, body aches and fatigue.
Experts continue to urge wearing masks, enhancing ventilation indoors when possible, staying home when unwell, and receiving the current COVID-19 vaccine to protect yourself against infection and serious sickness. According to preliminary studies, the revised COVID-19 vaccines introduced in September generate antibodies that are effective against JN.1, which is distantly related to the XBB.1.5 strain that the vaccines were supposed to target. Although people may not develop as many antibodies to JN.1 as they would to XBB.1.5, the levels should still reduce the danger. “For those who were recently infected or boosted, the cross-protection against JN.1 should be decent, based on our laboratory studies,” said Dr David Ho, a virologist at Columbia University who led the research on JN.1 and Covid vaccines, which was released as a preprint paper in early December. Rapid tests also continue to be a valuable tool, and the CDC has said tests already on the market work well at detecting JN.1.
JN.1 will most likely stay the dominant version of the coronavirus through the spring
There are signs that Covid instances are resurfacing. The week of December 10, there were just under 26,000 hospitalizations due to Covid, a 10% rise from the week before. However, Covid hospitalizations are still significantly fewer than they were during the first omicron wave in January 2022 and are only about half as high as they were during the tripledemic last winter, when Covid-19, flu, and RSV cases all spiked at the same time. It is too early to tell whether JN.1 is to blame for the increase in hospitalizations or whether cases are increasing due to increased travel and large gatherings for Thanksgiving and the winter holidays.
“When people are gathered inside close to each other, having parties and travelling and the like, those are the kind of circumstances where all respiratory viruses, including JN.1, have opportunities to spread,” Schaffner went on to say. He also mentioned that covid has some seasonality; countries in the Northern Hemisphere experience a drop in incidence in the fall before infections and hospitalizations rise again in the winter.
According to Schaffner, JN.1 will most likely stay the dominant version of the coronavirus through the spring. While vaccines provide protection against it and other variations, he and other doctors warned that adoption remains poor, with only 18% of individuals having received the most recent injections. Experts said everyone should consider getting vaccinated, especially those who are older than 65, are immunocompromised, have health conditions that put them at higher risk of severe illness or are travelling to visit loved ones who may be vulnerable.