SocraticGadfly: Coronavirus Week 127: New variant? How serious?

November 10, 2022

Coronavirus Week 127: New variant? How serious?

The XBB COVID variant is getting buzz. But, does it "deserve" that much buzz?

It's a hybrid of two subvariants of Omicron. Supposedly, it's as antibody-evasive as the more distantly related coronavirus that caused SARS. 

Missing from the story, at least this one?

Severity of effects. Only info is brief and that at worst, it's no worse than other variants.
 
The NYT also says you can at least partially chillax. It also notes, per me and Paul Offit, that the new bivalent booster isn't of much help for those under 50. Unlike me and Offit, it doesn't go into more detail about the need for non-mRNA boosters as part of the package to boost T-cells as well as antibodies.

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