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The XBB.1.5 variant makes up 40.5 percent of cases in the United States, and 70 percent of cases in the New York tristate area through New England, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
"I would expect a wave of infection with this new variant," Dr. Scott Gottlieb, former commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), told MSNBC on Monday morning, Jan. 2. "What's surprising us all is the rate of mutation of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Some of us, including myself, had believed it would start to settle down and mutate at a rate closer to the way flu mutates. It's continued to mutate rapidly."
Gottlieb said the XBB variant "has about 14 additional mutations from the old Omicron variant, BA.2, which was spreading in the summertime."
"This is more immune evasive," he noted. "It's a risk to people who have been previously infected over the summer, fall, or even the winter, with either BA.2 or BA.5 or BQ.1.1 (also Omicron subvariants) to get reinfected now with this new variant.
"The new vaccine that we've formulated, which is based on BA.5, isn't going to be as protective. It's still going to retain some protection against this XBB variant, but it's not going to be as protective."
COVID hospitalizations among those age 70 and older in New England have hit their highest levels seen since early February 2022, the CDC says.
Columbia University researchers wrote in the journal Cell that sublineages of the Omicron subvariants had a “dramatically increased” ability to evade antibody protection.
"It is alarming that these newly emerged subvariants could further compromise the efficacy of current COVID-19 vaccines and result in a surge of breakthrough infections as well as re-infections," the researchers wrote. "However, it is important to emphasize that although infections may now be more likely, COVID-19 vaccines have been shown to remain effective at preventing hospitalization and severe disease even against Omicron."
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