Two new COVID-19 variants that quietly emerged on the scene over the last few weeks — ones that Dr. Anthony Fauci has described as “pretty troublesome” — are becoming increasingly prevalent in the New York area and stoking fresh concerns as the nation braces for yet another potential winter surge, the latest CDC data shows.
You may not have heard of these two subvariants before — BQ.1 and BQ.1.1. Both are descendants of omicron, which has proven to be the most vaccine-elusive and infectious COVID variant to date, and both are spreading at rapid rates.
According to the CDC, BQ.1 and BQ.1.1 each account for 5.7% of U.S. COVID cases, about 11.4% of the total. They barely registered on the CDC dashboard to start the month, accounting for 1.8% and 1% of cases, respectively.
In New England, the numbers are a bit lower, with BQ.1.1 accounting for 4% of cases and BQ.1 3.1% for a total of 7.1%. That’s far lower than in the New York region, where the two variants account for almost 20% of total cases. Throughout the pandemic, COVID numbers in New York have often provided an early look at what Massachusetts and the other southern New England states have in store.
Across New England, COVID cases have started to creep up in recent weeks. Massachusetts health officials reported 7,865 new COVID-19 cases and 60 new deaths in last week’s report. The state’s seven-day average positivity was listed at 8.60% Thursday, compared to 7.76% last week.
The CDC’s COVID risk level has also been streadily rising across southern New England of late, with all of Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island now included in the medium risk category.
Researchers at the university were working with a hybrid strain of the virus, by taking the spike protein of omicron and attaching it to the original strain of COVID.
We asked Boston doctors for their thoughts on the new variants, and how worried people should be, during NBC10 Boston’s weekly series, “COVID Q&A.”
“In terms of this particular variant, the BQ.1.1, there’s actually limited information that we actually have,” said Dr. Sabrina Assoumou of Boston Medical Center. “What we do know is it seems to have what we call a growth advantage, meaning it is quickly making up a higher proportion of the cases from COVID-19. It’s been sort of identified in Europe, especially in Germany where it seems to have caused a super spreader event related to Oktoberfest. So in terms of its growth advantage, it’s a little bit clearer because it is more transmissible, but the one data point that we do know is that it appears to be evading immunity… meaning that our vaccines may not work as well as they had with prior variants. So the point that I would like to make is that it is even more important right now that we are up to date with our vaccines because we do know that our vaccines, especially when you get boosted, provide a higher level of protection. And so with these new variants that are coming out, it’s even more important to be up to date.”
But Assoumou said she hasn’t seen any data yet to suggest that the new variant will cause more severe disease.
“Only time will tell,” she said. “My big message is, unfortunately, we’re seeing more variants, and the virus is actually figuring out better ways to evade our protection, but we’re not hopeless and it’s not a helpless situation. We have vaccines, they actually work, but the key thing is that you have to be up to date… So please get get up to date so that we are all prepared in the community before a potential winter surge.”
“I think it’s likely that we’ll continue to see the proportion of cases that are being caused by the new variants increase because they do seem to be able to evade immunity,” Dr. Daniel Kuritzkes of Brigham and Women’s Hospital said. “But for the general public. I think the issue is going to be that, first of all, receiving a booster vaccine, as Dr. Assoumou said, will strengthen immunity…
Read More: New BQ.1, BQ.1.1 COVID Variants Spreading in Mass., New England – NBC Boston