<
https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-nightmare-xbb-covid-variant-that-beats-our-immunity-is-finally-here>
"A new subvariant of the novel-coronavirus called XBB dramatically announced
itself earlier this week, in Singapore. New COVID-19 cases more than doubled in
a day, from 4,700 on Monday to 11,700 on Tuesday—and XBB is almost certainly
why. The same subvariant just appeared in Hong Kong, too.
A highly mutated descendant of the Omicron variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus that
drove a record wave of infections starting around a year ago, XBB is in many
ways the worst form of the virus so far. It’s more contagious than any previous
variant or subvariant. It also evades the antibodies from monoclonal therapies,
potentially rendering a whole category of drugs ineffective as COVID
treatments.
“It is likely the most immune-evasive and poses problems for current monoclonal
antibody-based treatments and prevention strategy,” Amesh Adalja, a
public-health expert at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, told
The
Daily Beast.
That’s the bad news. The good news is that the new “bivalent” vaccine boosters
from Pfizer and Moderna seem to work just fine against XBB, even though the
original vaccines are less effective against XBB. They won’t prevent all
infections and reinfections, but they should significantly reduce the chance of
severe infection potentially leading to hospitalization or death. “Even with
immune-evasive variants, vaccine protection against what matters most—severe
disease—remains intact,” Adalja said.
As the novel-coronavirus evolves to become more contagious and more resistant
to certain types of drugs, keeping current on your boosters is “the most
impactful thing you can do in preparation for what might come,” Peter Hotez, an
expert in vaccine development at Baylor College, told
The Daily Beast."
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
