<
https://www.thedailybeast.com/deadly-twist-in-covid-variant-takes-the-world-by-surprise>
"As the wave of COVID infections from the highly-contagious BA.5 subvariant
finally subsided in late July, new subvariants were already competing for
dominance—and the opportunity to drive the next wave of infections.
A little over two months later, epidemiologists are close to naming a winner.
In the United Kingdom, infections from a highly mutated subvariant called
BQ.1.1 are doubling every week—a rate of growth that far exceeds other leading
subvariants. In the U.S., BQ.1.1 is spreading twice as fast as its cousin
subvariant BA.2.75.2.
That means BQ.1.1 is very contagious. But that’s not the subvariant’s most
alarming quality. What’s most worrying is that it also evades certain
antibodies. In fact, BQ.1.1 seems to be the first form of COVID against which
antibody therapies—evusheld and bebtelovimab, for instance—don’t work at all.
Luckily, the best vaccines still work against BQ.1.1—especially the latest
“bivalent” messenger-RNA boosters. Uptake of the new booster has been
shockingly sluggish, however, meaning the new shots aren’t yet offering much
protection on a population level.
We have the tools to defeat COVID. But “the reality is nobody is using the
tools,” James Lawler, an infectious disease expert at the University of
Nebraska Medical Center, told
The Daily Beast."
Via Violet Blue’s
Pandemic Roundup: October 13, 2022
https://www.patreon.com/posts/pandemic-roundup-73246405
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
