CDC data shows that cases of new COVID 'escape variants' on the rise
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New data released by the CDC indicates that the number of COVID-19 cases attributed to variants BQ.1 and BQ1.1. -- dubbed "escape variants" as COVID treatments may be ineffective against them -- is rising.
For the week ending Oct. 15, the data shows that each variant accounted for 5.7% of cases in the country. The prior week, the figures for BQ.1 and BQ1.1. were, respectively, 3.3% and 2.4%.
Public health experts are concerned that the two variants' rapid growth could mean an increase of COVID cases in the weeks and months to come.
In September, Cornelius Roemer, a computational biologist with the University of Basel in Switzerland, wrote that BQ1.1 "will drive a variant wave in Europe and North America before the end of November."
Eric Feigl-Ding, an epidemiologist and chief of the COVID Task Force at the New England Complex Systems Institute, believes the updated COVID vaccines should provide protection against the BQ variant family as it is derived from the Omicron BA.5 subvariant.
However, he added monoclonal antibody treatments are likely ineffective against the new variants. A Chinese study found that the new variants can escape being impacted by AstraZeneca's (AZN) Evusheld (tixagevimab and cilgavimab) and Eli Lilly's (NYSE:LLY) bebtelovimab.
"Our models predict a variety of 5+ key mutation sub variants will cause a surge of COVID by mid to late November just in time for Thanksgiving, especially if we don't BA5 bivalent boost," Feigl-Ding wrote.
COVID vaccine makers: Moderna (NASDAQ:MRNA), Pfizer (NYSE:PFE), BioNTech (BNTX), and Novavax (NASDAQ:NVAX).
On Wednesday, the World Health Organization warned that Europe may be entering a new COVID wave.