{"id":67298,"date":"2022-12-13T14:53:14","date_gmt":"2022-12-13T21:53:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uchealth.org\/today\/?p=67298"},"modified":"2025-02-28T11:46:45","modified_gmt":"2025-02-28T18:46:45","slug":"bq-variants-and-xbb-as-contagious-as-measles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uchealth.org\/today\/bq-variants-and-xbb-as-contagious-as-measles\/","title":{"rendered":"From BQ to XBB: What you need to know about the newest, ‘extremely contagious’ COVID-19 variants. Get your booster now."},"content":{"rendered":"
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The BQ variants and XBB are extremely contagious, but the new boosters offer protection against them. Photo: Getty Images.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Just in time for the holidays, coronavirus cases \u2013 and hospitalizations \u2013 are on the rise. To blame are the BQ.1, BQ.1.1, and, to a lesser extent for now, XBB variants. All are descendants of the original BA.1 omicron variant that caused a massive spike in cases starting about a year ago.<\/p>\n

These new variants are extremely contagious, \u201cbarking at the heels of measles, and that is quite a remarkable level of transmission,\u201d as Ross Kedl<\/a>, Ph.D., a CU School of Medicine immunologist and vaccine specialist, put it. Also, the BQ.1.1 and XBB variants appear to render ineffective the monoclonal antibodies bebtelovimab<\/a> and Evusheld, both of which have been important in helping protect those with weakened immune systems from COVID-19.<\/p>\n

Huge numbers<\/a> of previous infections \u2013 many of them omicron infections \u2013 plus widespread vaccination with the initial two-dose mRNA vaccines and subsequent boosters have exposed the vast majority of the U.S. population to the coronavirus in some form, starkly reducing the odds of another omicron-like spike in cases. Also, there\u2019s no indication that these new variants trigger more serious disease than their predecessors, unlike the delta wave of the summer of 2021.<\/p>\n

Still, as of Dec. 13, the 399 hospitalizations<\/a> statewide were more than double the tally of a month before. (Hospitalizations from the original omicron wave peaked at 1,676 in mid-January.)<\/p>\n

New boosters appear to work well against BQ variants and XBB<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Those vulnerable to serious disease and have not had either a vaccine booster dose or gotten the coronavirus in the past six months should, as Kedl put it, \u201crun, don\u2019t walk\u201d to the local pharmacy or doctor\u2019s office for a booster. While obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and other health problems increase the risk of serious disease, age is, as before, decisive: Those over 65 have accounted for about 90%<\/a> of omicron-related deaths.<\/p>\n

The new boosters are \u201cbivalent,\u201d referring to shots that include both the original mRNA-vaccine formulations from Moderna and Pfizer BioNTech and mRNA tailored to the BA.4 and BA.5 omicron variants that became dominant in June.<\/p>\n

The bivalent vaccines appear to work well against the BQ, XBB, and other emerging variants. A CDC study<\/a> of more than 360,000 reporting coronavirus symptoms from Sept. 14 to Nov. 11 found that the bivalent boosters offered 30% to more than 50% better protection against the prevailing variants than the initial two-dose vaccine course tailored to the original strain, depending on patients\u2019 ages (resistance fell with age). While the BA.5 and, to a lesser extent, BA.4 variants were still dominant in September, the BQ.1 and BQ.1.1 variants accounted for about 30% of cases by early November. Today, BA.5 makes up about 14% of cases and falling; BA.4 is essentially extinct.<\/p>\n

BQ.1 and BQ.1.1 now comprise about two-thirds of cases nationally, with XBB adding another 5% and rising. Lab studies by Moderna<\/a>, Pfizer BioNTech, and others<\/a> have also found that these variants\u2019 kinship with the original BA.1 omicron variant had rendered them vulnerable to the immune responses the bivalent vaccines unleash.<\/p>\n

As Moderna CEO St\u00e9phane Bancel put it, \u201cOur bivalent boosters also show, in research assays, neutralizing activity against BQ.1.1, an increasingly dominant emerging variant, confirming that updated vaccines have the potential to offer protection as the virus continues to evolve rapidly to escape our immunity.\u201d<\/p>\n

Boosters help prevent hospitalizations from highly contagious BQ variants<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Yet just 12.7% of those over age 5 in the United States have had the bivalent booster dose, according to U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) data<\/a>. Worse, just one-third of those over 65 have received bivalent boosters despite being at higher risk. While the numbers are better in Colorado (23% of those older than age 5 and 42% of those 65 and older), it\u2019s still far below the 71% (age 5+) and 99.9% (age 65+) of those who got the original two-dose vaccine.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s quite simple,\u201d wrote Dr. Eric Topol<\/a>, director of the Scripps Research Translational Institute in La Jolla, California. \u201cYou want to avoid severe COVID and hospitalization, you need a booster within the past 4-6 months. The boosters won\u2019t do too much to block infections but are holding up well for preventing hospitalizations.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kedl drew a comparison with tetanus shots.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t bat an eye when the doctor says you need your tetanus booster. People don\u2019t go, \u2018Really, like, I\u2019ve already had four in my lifetime. I think that\u2019s plenty,\u2019 he said. \u201cNobody says that. They say, OK, I don\u2019t want to die stiff as a board. That\u2019s a bad idea.\u201d<\/p>\n

The coronavirus still kills\u00a0more than 250 people per day in the United States, which would add up to double or triple that of annual flu deaths, depending on the year. The worst spikes of 2020 and 2021 happened during the holidays. It\u2019s the holidays again.<\/p>\n

\u201cAssess your own risk, right?\u201d Kedl says. \u201cIf I were 75, and I had the holidays coming up, I\u2019d be up to date on my boosters, especially now, because you want a few weeks under your belt before you gather with a bunch of people. I might wear a mask if I had to fly somewhere or was at the mall.\u201d<\/p>\n

New variants are part of an evolutionary pattern that will continue until a pan-coronavirus vaccine along the lines of one recently announced for flu gets developed and administered universally. We may as well get used to the occasional booster dose, Kedl says.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not getting rid of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus,\u201d he said. \u201cThis is just part of our future now.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Just in time for the holidays, coronavirus cases \u2013 and hospitalizations \u2013 are on the rise. To blame are the BQ.1, BQ.1.1, and, to a lesser extent for now, XBB variants. All are descendants of the original BA.1 omicron variant that caused a massive spike in cases starting about a year ago. These new variants […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":67349,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[4859,4860,9069],"class_list":["post-67298","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-coronavirus","tag-covid-19","tag-covid-19-vaccine"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nBQ variants & XBB: As contagious as measles? - UCHealth Today<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The BQ variants and XBB are extremely contagious, \u201cbarking at the heels of measles." 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