The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) forecasts that XBB.1.5, the Omicron subvariant that arose in New York State, will spread throughout the country.
The new sublineage accounts for approximately 40.5% of confirmed U.S. COVID-19 cases, up from 20% a week before, according to the prediction issued on Friday, as reported by Health News.
In an interview with CBS News, Dr. Barbara Mahon, director of the CDC’s Coronavirus and Other Respiratory Viruses, predicted that XBB.1.5 will become the predominant strain in the Northeast and spread to other regions of the country.
XBB.1.5 is related to the Omicron variant XBB, which is a fusion of two separate B.A.2 variants, BJ.1 (BA.2.10.1.1) and BA.2.75 according to Eric Topol, MD, professor of molecular medicine and executive vice president of Scripps Research, a non-profit medical research institution.
According to Dr. Topol, the appearance of the XBB.1.5 variety in New York State “coincided with the start of a sharp increase in hospitalizations in that state.”
Topol writes that the essential mutation of XBB.1.5 is F486P, which has been linked to immunity escape. And if XBB.1.5 has a significant growth advantage over BQ.1.1, this “is not a positive omen” because XBB.1 is more immune evasive than BQ.1.1.
According to a recent study published in Cell, BQ.1, BQ.1.1, XBB, and XBB.1 are the “most resistant SARS-CoV-2 variations to date” and represent grave dangers to existing COVID-19 vaccines, including the recently licensed bivalent boosters against the Omicron subvariants BA.4/5. However, the research was conducted outside of living beings in a laboratory.
In October, the World Health Organization (WHO) released information indicating that XBB did not result in a more serious infection. Nonetheless, preliminary findings suggested a higher reinfection risk compared to other Omicron subvariants.
The XBB subtype now accounts for 3.6% of all cases in the United States.
