New Variants of Concern: BQ.1 and BQ.1.1

 

Today my news feed contained this story about a couple of new variants called BQ.1 and BQ.1.1. These variants were previously lumped-in with BA.5, from which they descended. 

They were broken out separately a month ago, and officials worry about them because of how fast they're increasing—growing to 10% of U.S. cases in one month. The article claims they are rapidly spreading in Europe too, though I can't find any mention of them on the EU Dashboard.

Lim Lab lists these two variants as accounting for about 4% of Arizona cases as of October 3. Most recent data from October 10 shows only BA.5, but there are very few sequences involved in that calculation.

As with the other variants, the worry is that these variants are increasing because they are better at  evading immunity from previous infections and vaccinations. There is also concern that monoclonal antibody treatments may not be as effective against them. 

That's the same thing they said about BA.2.75 which I wrote about  a couple weeks ago. It seems not to have taken off like they were worried that it would...yet.

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