The genetic mutation that causes Kraken Covid to spread: The first versions include BA.1, followed by BA.5, then BQ.1 and BQ.1.1. All eyes are currently on another jumbled string of letters and numbers called XBB.1.5, aka the Kraken, that has just conquered the northeastern US.
The World Health Organization (WHO) stated that XBB.1.5 is the most contagious Omicron variety to date and advised countries to advise the use of masks in hazardous environments, such as aircraft. It is quickly taking over in some parts of the US, and some specialists are concerned it could evade immunity to previous infections and even vaccinations.
Every time a new variant grows that fast, it attracts interest. Significant changes in the SARS-CoV-2 virus could increase the number of illnesses, hospitalizations and deaths, straining the healthcare system and increasing the number of long-term COVID-19 cases. The WHO claims no evidence that the mutations in this variety will lead to more severe infections even though XBB.1.5 conditions are on the rise, but it is still early days.
Despite a slow rise, Covid hospitalizations in the US are still well below early 2022 levels. However, the emergence of a fast-growing variety is drawing attention to a recurring problem: the need for new immunizations.
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“We haven’t seen a sublineage take off at that rate in a while, so that’s another sign that this one is worth watching,” says Pavitra Roychoudhury, director of Covid-19 sequencing at the University of Washington Virology Lab.
Roychoudhury says it’s essential to monitor variants early to identify them and consider how to design future vaccines: “Until we have a vaccine that will be effective against all variants, we will have to try to design them based on what is likely to be circulating at high frequency.”
This variation is a recombinant of two additional Omicron progeny and is an underline. Mixing can occur when two different virus strains infect a person at the same time or when they come into contact with sewage.
Suppose it turns out to have two advantages that would make it highly contagious. In that case, the ability to evade antibodies developed from previous infections or vaccinations and the power to bind to ACE2 receptors, where Covid enters cells and infects humans, could stand out among the different circulating Omicron variants.
Chinese researchers interested in XBB.1.5 made this claim in a preprint they submitted in early January, but that paper has not yet been published or subjected to peer review.
“It’s sort of a one-two punch of mutations,” say Peter Hotezco-director of the Texas Children’s Hospital Center for Vaccine Development and dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine. “Not only does it have the immune escape properties, but it was able to do it while retaining its ability to bind to the receptor.”
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People’s actions also contribute to its rapid spread: Fewer people are wearing masks now than in 2020, and many have traveled and gathered indoors to celebrate the holidays.
That’s a recipe for many people who get sick easily. “What we have now is this subvariant that has a lot of immune escape that will also come into play once we have removed most, if not all, of our other public health mitigating practices,” say Stephanie Silveraan epidemiologist and professor of public health at Montclair State University in New Jersey.
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