What Are BQ.1 and BQ.1.1, the ‘Troublesome’ Omicron Subvariants?
from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention —and last week, these variants weren’t even considered noteworthy enough to be on the list.
Both BQ.1 and BQ.1.1 have “qualities or characteristics that could evade some of the interventions we have,” Anthony Fauci, M.D., director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, recently told. He continued, “when you get variants like that, you look at what their rate of increase is as a relative proportion of the variants, and this has a pretty troublesome doubling time.” Basically, BQ.1 and BQ.1.1—along with other COVID-19 variants likeBut what’s the deal with BQ.
Again: These variants are growing fast. They were previously packaged in CDC data under BA.5, but were eventually given their own spot on the CDC’s “Nowcast” COVID-19 data tracker after cases continued to rise sharply. BQ.1 and BQ.1.1 are particularly concerning because they’re jumping up in a world that has “increasing immunity” from vaccines and natural infection, Dr. Russo says. “If you’re a variant or variants that can evade that, you’re then one that’s going to be able to spread and gain a larger share of infections,” he says.
Dr. Fauci called out BQ.1.1 in particular over concerns that it could evade protection from Evusheld, an antibody drug used to help minimize the risk of severe disease in people who are immunocompromised.“It seems to elude important monoclonal antibodies,” he said.As of right now, BQ.1 and BQ.1.1 do not seem to have symptoms that distinguish them from previous COVID-19 variants, says William Schaffner, M.D.
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