So-called ‘nightmare’ COVID variant likely already in Mass., doctors say


Boston-area doctors are warning that the so-called “nightmare” COVID-19 variant, officially known as XBB, is most likely already present in Massachusetts.

The new variant is an offshoot of the Omicron COVID-19 strain that caused a wave of infections from November last year to February and represented the virus’s highest number of infections after vaccines became widely available.

Doctors from Tufts Medical Center Hospital and Boston Medical Center told NBC Boston that the new XBB strain, which spread rapidly in Southeast Asia, is extremely immune evasive and evidence suggests it might be immune to current vaccines.

“There is a reasonable chance that XBB is already in Massachusetts since it has been reported in New York,” Dr. David Hamer, of Boston Medical, told the outlet. “Since we are sequencing fewer samples than before, it may take longer to identify.”

Health experts first detected XBB in the U.S. on September 15 after a child tested positive in New York, Fortune reported. Only 15 cases of the XBB variant were reported in the entire country at the time.

Doctors told NBC Boston that although the recent wave of COVID cases spread rapidly in Singapore — which has one of the highest rates of vaccinations in the world — it doesn’t guarantee the pattern will repeat in the U.S.

“It’s always been true, but it is especially true these days — you can’t use what happens in another country as a definite predictor of what’s going to happen in a different country,” Dr. Shira Doron, of Tufts Medical Center, told the outlet. “You should use it to prepare.”

The latest update by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed that there is no official sign of the XBB variant in New England yet, as other Omicron variants continue to be more prevalent.

At a press conference by the World Health Organization last week, health officials stated that while the new XBB variant appears to spread more effectively than other Omicron variants, it is still not yet known if it causes more severe disease than other strains.

The two Boston doctors warned that the new XBB variant appears to evade treatment from monoclonal antibodies and that it could render new bivalent vaccines ineffective, NBC Boston reported.

“It has more mutations in the receptor-binding domain, so it’s better able to evade immunity from some of the other Omicron subvariants. So both the booster but also natural infection may not protect as well against this. So that gives it a fitness advantage,” Hamer said. “But, you know, let’s see what happens.”

According to the U.S. coronavirus vaccine tracker by USAFacts.org, at least 79% of the population has received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, with 68% receiving two and only 33% receiving a booster dose.



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