Data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention indicates that omicron variant XBB.1.5 will become the dominant strain of COVID-19 in the U.S., making up 40.5% of all infections.
What should the public know about this variant?
Why is this strain different?
In October, the World Health Organization issued an update about two variants of SARS CoV-2, BQ.1 and XBB.
It explained that XBB “is a recombinant of BA.2.10.1 and BA.2.75 sublineages,” and that it had a global prevalence of 1.3% with detection in 35 countries. At that point, there was some early evidence on clinical severity and reinfection risk from Singapore, India and other countries.
This included “evidence pointing at a higher reinfection risk, as compared to other circulating omicron sublineages,” according to the WHO. Scientists in Japan reported this week that XBB is the most resistant variant to antibodies from prior infection compared to any they had tested.
CBS News reported Friday that XBB is also “resistant to a roster of monoclonal antibody drugs that doctors had relied on earlier in the pandemic,” and that the XBB.1.5 strain “is a spinoff of the XBB variant,” that scientists believe caused a wave of hospitalizations in South Asia.
“Beyond its parent, XBB.1.5 has an additional change called S486P,” said the outlet. “Chinese scientists have reported the mutation appears to offer a ‘greatly enhanced’ ability to bind to cells, which could be helping drive its spread.”
This week, the CDC said that the strain “may be more transmissible than other variants, but we don’t know if it causes more severe disease. We’re closely watching this variant to see how well our vaccines & treatments are working against it.”
How fast is it spreading?
“We’re projecting that it’s going to be the dominant variant in the Northeast region of the country and that it’s going to increase in all regions of the country,” Dr. Barbara Mahon, director of the CDC's proposed Coronavirus and Other Respiratory Viruses Division, told CBS News.
Mahon said the CDC had not listed XBB.1.5 separately in earlier projections because the strain” had not cleared a minimum threshold in the underlying sequences collected by the agency.” She also said that the 40.5% figure is a projection and that it XBB 1.5’s distribution could vary.
“CDC constantly monitors for and reports on current and new COVID-19 variants,” said the agency in a tweet. “As more genetic sequencing data are gathered week to week, today’s projections may change.”
How can Americans stay protected?
Although a newer variant is on the rise, the CDC said its recommendations for staying protected from COVID-19 remain the same.
These include: testing before going to large gatherings, wearing a mask in areas of high community transmission and staying up to date on COVID-19 vaccination – including the bivalent booster shots formulated to protect against omicron infection.
Research from earlier this year indicates that the updated bivalent boosters offer better protection against omicron variants, including XBB.
“We expect that the bivalent booster will provide protection against XBB.1.5 as it has against other Omicron subvariants. And if people haven’t gotten it yet, this is a great time to do it,” Mahon said.
However, CBS noted that antibody responses in a study from earlier this year were worse for XBB compared to the other strains they studied.
“The XBB.1.5 variant would look similar to the XBB we tested in our study. The R346T/I mutation within the spike increases the ability of the virus to evade antibodies more efficiently,” Emory University's Mehul Suthar told the outlet in an email.
For those who do get infected with XBB 1.5, CBS said that the Japanese scientist suggest antiviral drugs such as Paxlovid from Pfizer will retain efficacy against XBB.
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