More than four years later, Covid-19 continues to cause people to talk. This week we learned that Europe has suspended the sale of the AstraZeneca vaccine against the coronavirus at the request of the company itself, which assured that the main reason was the lack of demand. Although a few days before it had been made public that, for the first time, the company had admitted that its vaccine can cause side effects. But now the news is once again in the birth of a new strainwhich is spreading like wildfire across the United States.
According to data from the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC), there are currently 11 active variants in the American country. But from last April 14 to the 27th of the same month almost 25% of Covid infections were from KP.2, a new variant that has already become the predominant one. In second position is JN.1, which until now led the classification, with 22% of the cases. And the podium is closed by JN.1.7, with about 13% of the cases. All of them are variants of omicron.
The American media is already reporting on the expansion of KP.2, which suggests that it could be more contagious than some previous variants, although the symptoms appear to be the same. “FLiRT was first identified in wastewater in the United States, but its precise origin is unknown,” Lawrence Young, virologist and professor of molecular oncology at the University of Warwick (United Kingdom) explained to the magazine a Newsweek. “It is spreading in the United States and beyond. And this raises concerns that it could lead to a wave of infection in the summer“he added.
“KP.2 is a member of a group of SARS-CoV-2 variants, sometimes called FLiRT variants due to the technical names of their mutations,” they explain from the Infectious Diseases Society of America (ISDA). “The KP.2 variant is a descendant of the JN.1 variant and contains several mutations that are associated with escape from vaccine-mediated immune protection. Preliminary research (not yet peer-reviewed) suggests that the estimated relative effective reproduction number of KP.2 may be 1.22 times greater than the Re of JN.1. This preliminary finding suggests a greater viral fitness than that of JN.1,” they add.
In any case, The proportion of infections caused by KP.2 continues to increase. During the week of March 30, it barely represented 3.9% of cases. But now one in four patients has this variant. “Preliminary findings suggest higher viral fitness than other variants and subvariants of JN.1, although a pseudovirus assay in this investigation suggests that the infectivity of KP.2 may be 10.5 times lower than that of JN.1. It is Importantly, in virus neutralization assays, KP.2 showed substantial resistance to sera from individuals vaccinated with the monovalent XBB.1.5 vaccine (i.e., the most recently updated COVID-19 vaccine),” ISDA added. .
All this catches the United States with its eyes focused elsewhere. And CDC data reveals that just 22.6% of US adults reported receiving an updated 2023-24 Covid vaccine since September of last year. And they show that vaccination coverage increased according to age, being highest among adults 75 years of age or older.
Concern among experts
According to Megan L. Ranney, dean of the Yale School of Public Health, FLiRT has “some worrying features”such as changes in the spike protein, which plays a role in helping SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid, to take hold, colonize the body and make people sick, the expert explained to the news portal medical WebMd.
“We need to continue monitoring the spread of this variant, which is difficult given that current testing is very patchy. But the spread of new variants of the virus and waning immunity are a concern especially for the most vulnerable: the elderly and those with an impaired immune system,” Young explained.
“While the vaccines currently available are not a perfect match for these new variants, booster shots should provide some protection, as well as previous infection. But it is possible that these FLiRT variants will cause a small wave of infection in the coming months,” Young said.
From WebMD They recalled that the JN.1 variant followed a similar path to the one now pointed out by KP.2: “It spread throughout the world during the winter and still represents 95% of Covid cases in the US. Its lineage is the omicron variant, which has been circulating in some form since 2021. Still, new variants can quickly take hold. JN.1 accounted for almost none of the cases in mid-November, but quickly jumped to 21% in December and 85% in the third week of January“.
He Miami Herald stressed that This time of year is also the time for seasonal allergies, which can cause Covid-like symptoms, such as a runny nose and sore throat. But they pointed out that fever and muscle aches are not usually indicative of allergies and may indicate a case of coronavirus.
