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A new variant of Covid-19 is spreading rapidly across the United States this holiday season, even as Americans' interest in getting vaccinated has waned.
JN. 1, a subvariant of Omicron that has an additional mutation in the spike protein, now accounts for more than 44 percent of Covid cases in the United States, according to estimates from the Centers for Disease Control, and has doubled its spread in just two weeks Week.
The World Health Organization classified JN on Tuesday. 1 as a “variant of interest,” citing its rapidly increasing global spread, but noting that it poses a low risk to global health.
JN. 1 Cases have been recorded in 41 countries, led by France, the United States, Singapore, Canada, the United Kingdom and Sweden, and infections could continue to rise during the winter season, the UN health agency said.
In the U.S., the rollout of updated Covid vaccines and adherence to other preventative measures such as masking have declined sharply since the peak of the pandemic, said Carlos Malvestutto, an associate professor of infectious diseases at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center.
“Everyone I’ve seen in the hospital with Covid in the last few months – none of them had received the updated vaccine,” Malvestutto said.
Major drugstore chains like CVS and Walgreens Boots have tried to boost vaccination distribution. Workers at some stores have complained of pressure as stores try to make up for lost demand for vaccines by offering bonuses to employees who convince customers to get vaccinated.
About 18 percent of U.S. adults have received the updated 2023-2024 Covid vaccine as of Friday, the CDC said based on a weekly updated survey. The latest vaccines protect against serious illness and death from JN. 1 and other circulating variants, it said.
Meanwhile, vaccine makers whose stocks were among early pandemic winners, such as Pfizer, BioNTech, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson, were among the worst performers in a year as the S&P 500 neared all-time highs.
As a result, some companies, including Pfizer, have tried to target the emerging market for obesity drugs but have faced obstacles such as side effects. Last week, Pfizer lowered its 2024 revenue forecast and increased its cost-cutting program by $500 million.
Meanwhile, Covid hospitalizations in the US rose 10.4 percent last week compared to the previous week, but remained 30 percent lower year-over-year, according to the CDC.
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The number of deaths is significantly lower compared to this point in 2022, with 716 deaths in the week ending December 16 compared to 3,186 in the same week last year. According to the CDC, the peak weekly number of deaths during the peak of the pandemic reached nearly 26,000 in early January 2021.
“Mortality and hospitalization rates [for JN. 1] are not the explosive rates we saw during the delta wave, but we are definitely seeing an increase,” Malvestutto said. He said that with the return of a regular flu season and the persistent respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) at a time of year when crowds gather indoors, a rise in infections is also expected.
“We don’t have to worry about going back to the early days of Covid,” Malvestutto said. “At the same time, we cannot allow the pendulum to swing the other way because for many people it is very serious and people can die.”