There is a new batch of Covid variants in loose: BQ.1, BQ.1.1, and XBB. It’s enough to turn the heads of a pandemic-weary public.
Here’s what we know about them: BQs are offshoots of the reigning BA.5 Omicron strain, which once accounted for nearly all US Covid cases and is still responsible for nearly seven out of 10.
But infections with new BQ variants have tripled in the past two weeks, according to CDC data.
“On paper, [BQ.1.1] looks like a virus that has probably, to date, the greatest skill to escape vaccine-induced immunity as well as some antibody treatments,” Andy Pekosz, a professor of microbiology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, said in a Global News video.
Epidemiologists believe the latest booster, designed to target the Omicron strain and available to Americans age 5 and older who have gotten the first two shots, will help avoid serious cases. But low vaccination uptake worries them. Only about 7 percent of people who are eligible have received the new injection.
“The bad news is that there is a new variant that is emerging that has qualities or characteristics that may avoid some of the interventions that we have,” President Joe Biden’s top medical adviser, Anthony Fauci, said in. an interview with CBS News. “The somewhat encouraging news is that it’s a BA.5 subline, so there will almost certainly be some crossover protection that you can boost.”
And then there’s XBBa variant highlighted as “the most antibody-evasive strain tested” in the a study by Peking University researchers. The variant has not yet appeared on the CDC dashboard, but has been discovered in the US and 25 other countries. Cases in heavily vaccinated Singapore, where the variant is dominant, they are almost all mild or asymptomatic.
Why are we talking about variants again?
we are we “a new evolutionary stage in the pandemic,” wrote Carolyn Johnson of The Washington Post. “To focus too much on a possible variant, many experts argue, is to miss the point. What matters is that all these new threats are accumulating mutations.”
The growing number of Covid attackers means that a person with a different set of antibodies has the best chance of avoiding severe disease, said Stuart Ray, a professor of medicine at Johns Hopkins. The pulse of the future.
“The new bivalent enhancer increases the diversity of those antibodies — increasing the chances that they will bind to a newer variant,” Ray said.
Across the Atlantic: Infection rates, hospitalizations, intensive care admissions and deaths from Covid are increasing in Europe, Forbes reported, perhaps anticipating another winter surge.
But the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control reported that the death rate remained low, though it’s growing in 11 countries. Dead also remain near pandemic lows in the US and are declining.
Europeans’ updated booster rates are on par with Americans, although Europeans are more likely to have received previously recommended injections.
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We were surprised by Lively, animated user interface of Surgeon General Vivek Murthy’s website. Whoever is behind it is taking a much different approach than the rest of the federal government’s web designers.
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Today in ours Pulse Check Podcast’s Ben Leonard talks with Alice Miranda Ollstein about upcoming decisions in Congress on telehealth funding. Plus, a dispatch from Pennsylvania, where a state race is testing whether GOP abortion-rights supporters can survive.
Fox News host and Covid-19 vaccine skeptic Tucker Carlson ignited a firestorm when he tweeted a clip from his show claiming the CDC would make the Covid-19 vaccine mandatory for children to go to school.
The problem: It doesn’t work that way.
Immunization requirements for schools are set at the state or local level.
Most states consider the CDC recommendations, which now include the Covid vaccine, and cite them to justify their demands for school vaccines. But states also don’t require all recommended vaccines, such as the annual flu shot or HPV vaccination to prevent cervical cancer.
Carlson’s claim stemmed from votes CDC advisers took this week to add Covid injections to the federal Childhood Vaccine Program and to the agency’s recommended childhood vaccine schedule.
That sets the stage for the pictures to be available to children whose families can’t afford them, as POLITICO’s David Lim reported. And it’s likely to prompt states to consider whether to add them to their required school lists, POLITICO’s Lauren Gardner reported.
Answer: Twitter tagged Carlson’s tweet — his video had nearly two million views as of Thursday morning — but did not remove it.
The CDC also responded Wednesday.
Some criticized the CDC for getting involved, saying the agency reinforced his message. The Washington Post reported: “The CDC’s response drew criticism from public health experts, who said the agency did not explicitly dispute Carlson’s claim or speak in plain language.”
Carlson’s objection: Fox host replied the agency in a segment Wednesday night, accusing him of “lying.” Carlson cited several states’ school vaccine requirements that follow the CDC’s recommended schedule, including Massachusetts, TennesseeAND Virginia.
On the ground: of only the public school system in the United States to seek the Covid vaccination is in New Orleans, although it is easy to opt out. Laws requiring children to receive injections to attend school are pending The angels AND Washington DC
On the trail: The situation is already becoming a campaign issue.
And GOP governorsincluding Kay Ivey of Alabama, Bill Lee of Tennessee, Kim Reynolds of Iowa, Ron DeSantis of Florida and Kevin Stitt of Oklahoma, tweeted that they would ignore CDC guidelines in setting school vaccine requirements.
