According to statistics given by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the highly contagious Omicron BA.2 sub-variant XBB.1.5 is now responsible for more than 40% of the most recent Covid-19 cases in the United States. Despite the rising number of Covid cases in China, which is an infectious disease, many public health specialists are also worried about the doubling super version, XBB.1.5, according to Reuters.
In a recent interview with Reuters, Dr. Michael Osterholm, an infectious disease specialist at the University of Minnesota, stated that “ironically, maybe the worst form that the world is confronting right now is actually XBB.” Osterholm added that seven of the 10 states of the US where cases and hospitalizations are rising are in the Northeast, concurrent with an increase of XBB cases there, he said.
XBB was found for the first time in August
For the week ending December 31, XBB and XBB.1.5, two recombinants of the BA.2 variation, jointly accounted for 44.1% of all cases in the nation. For the week ending December 24, XBB.1.5 accounted for 21.7% of all cases.
In August, XBB was found for the first time in India. There and in Singapore, it swiftly grew in power. A number of subvariants, including XBB.1 and XBB.1.5, have been developed from it.
According to Johns Hopkins University virologist Andrew Pekosz, XBB.1.5 differs from other members of its family because of an extra mutation that improves its ability to connect to cells. “The virus needs to bind tightly to cells to be more efficient at getting in and that could help the virus be a little bit more efficient at infecting people,” Pekosz said.
The emergence of subvariants like XBB is compromising the efficiency of current Covid vaccinations
Data from Yunlong Richard Cao, a researcher and assistant professor at Peking University, were shared on Twitter on Tuesday and showed that XBB.1.5 is more effective at binding to cells through a crucial receptor than XBB.1, which was a variant that was highly immune evasive. It also evades protective antibodies as well.
The emergence of subvariants like XBB, according to Columbia University researchers, “further compromises the efficiency of current Covid vaccinations and results in a spike of breakthrough infections as well as re-infections.” The Evusheld antibody cocktail, which many patients with weakened immune systems rely on to protect themselves against Covid since they don’t mount a robust response to the vaccines, is also resistant to the XBB subvariants.
The scientists described the resistance of the XBB subvariants to antibodies from vaccination and infection as “alarming.” The XBB subvariants were even more effective at dodging protection from the omicron boosters than the BQ subvariants.