New octopus variant in the USA epidemiologist Feigl Ding Bypasses

New octopus variant in the USA, epidemiologist Feigl Ding: “Bypasses the immune protection and doubles the cases

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There is a new Covid variant, it is called octopus, has emerged in the United States and is very contagious: it doubles the cases in 7 days. The new mutation Xbb1.5 (Xbb and the Gryphon variant from which this subvariant descends), 2023 could also “cause concern” in Europe, after which US cases ‘doubled in a week’. The US epidemiologist sounds the alarm Eric Feigl thingwho shared the information on Twitter, claiming “that the new variant it is more immune vasive and more effective at infecting than other subvariants of Omicron». Loud Feigl-Ding “We haven’t seen such a rapid growth in cases since the launch of Omicron Ba.1 a year ago».

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Also the British epidemiologist Tim Spector, also via Twitter, warns of Xbb1.5: “This could be the new variant to watch out for in 2023”. Columbia University experts say that “Xbb.1.5 is very likely to have originated in the United States, with the first case detected in the New York area in October 2022.” A new special watch is arriving from overseas.

An alert confirmed by the official US monitoring agency CDC, which already recorded an increase in cases last December 30th. «New data – writes the CDC – show that the Variant XBB.1.5 is expected to account for 40.5% of COVID-19 cases nationwide».

Immuneevasive variants not detected by swabs

Therefore, in this phase of the pandemic, when on the other side of the world, in China, they have decided to abolish all anti-Covid restrictions, great caution is needed: they have chosen to let the virus circulate and with it the risk accept further, countless virus mutations. Geneticist Massimo Zollo, coordinator of the Ceinge Covid-19 Task Force, explained that molecular testing is still needed. “It would be more appropriate to determine the end of isolation for asymptomatic individuals on day five, only after an evaluation with a molecular test,” Zollo told ANSA. “A molecular test is preferable – he notes – because the rapid antigen test has an error rate of about 20%.”

I then spoke of the two sub-variants of the Omicron that have focused the attention of experts, the BF.7 and the XBB extensionthe geneticist points out that “the N gene of these subvariants already has five or four mutations and therefore Antigen tests that detect N protein cannot show positivity in tests designed for the original SarsCoV2 virus, the one from Wuhan. Moreover – he continues – data in our possession indicates that this is the case with positive people the transition to negativity occurs on average after an average of 10-12 days, and not after five days, and that in some cases (as in immunocompromised people or cancer patients) more weeks are needed, even three ». As far as the sensitivity of rapid antigen tests is concerned, according to Zollo there is a risk many false alarms.

Christmas effect, after the holidays, infections also increase in Italy

“After the holidays there will be an increase in Covid infections. This is normal and physiological. Dinners, parties, concerts, it’s clear that there will be more cases, even flu cases, but I don’t think there will be a new wave.” So at Adnkronos Salute Massimo Ciccozzi, Head of the Department of Medical Statistics and Molecular Epidemiology of the Faculty of Medicine and Surgery of the Campus Bio-Medico in Rome, takes stock. As for the variant front and the risk of a new one arriving from China, “It’s certainly not ‘Gryphon’, which is a recombinant form and is a bit weaker compared to the variants. In China – he continues – if Omicron stays, we can imagine that it will be phased out, but with their time they have a lot of unvaccinated elderly ».