SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS RADIO) – As the United States grapples with its two new leading COVID-19 variants, still other new variants are gripping countries around the world, like the new XBB variant is sweeping across Southeast Asia.
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The XBB variant in particular appears so far to be causing spikes in places like Singapore.
"This is just another one of these sub, subvariants of omicron that is finding its way to be able to evade the immunity we have either from previous infection or vaccines," said Dr. John Swartzberg, an infectious diseases professor at the UC Berkeley School of Public Health on KCBS Radio's "Ask an Expert" on Friday with Eric Thomas and Melissa Culross.
"It doesn't completely evade the immunity but it is more successful than, for example, we’ve been dealing with over the summer – BA.5," he said. "So XBB is certainly something we’re watching very carefully."
The bivalent vaccine boosters will likely make a difference in combatting new variants like this in that they provide broader, more robust immunity.
"There's no guarantee," said Swartzberg. "But all of the data to date, which is not a lot, is pointing towards the efficacy of this vaccine."
Right now, the most recent research coming out of labs is showing strong antibody response to a variety of the new subvariants.
"What we really want to see is clinical data, that is, how well is this new vaccine protecting us against getting infected, getting sick, getting really sick and winding up in the hospital or dying," he said.
The earliest that data might become publicly available is end of November.
While there isn't enough information yet to gauge several elements of immunity and how the new subvariants respond, the best form of protection people can have is to be up to date with their vaccination, even more so if they've previously been infected.
Despite perhaps being able to look ahead three, maybe six weeks down the road with COVID-19, it’s harder to get much more accurate than that.
"Anybody that tries to predict what this virus is doing is probably going to be wrong," said Swartzberg. "We've been wrong consistently as we've gone along."
But looking ahead to the fall and winter, there are signs that people will need to be extra cautious in the coming months as an uptick in cases spread across Europe.
And it’s in the United States as well. Wastewater studies in the Northeast have found an uptick in the virus’ presence, according to Swartzberg.
"That often presages what we're going to be seeing a couple of weeks after that," he said. "Typically we see the Northeast as the harbinger of what’s to come for the rest of the United States."
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