Concern is rising about the COVID-19 variant EG.5. This month,
it became the dominant variant in the United States, and the World Health
Organization classified EG.5 as a “variant of interest,” meaning it has genetic
changes that give it an advantage and its prevalence is growing. So how worried
should people be about it?
اضافة اعلان
While severe illness in older adults and people with existing
health conditions is always a concern, as is long COVID in anyone who gets
infected, experts say EG.5 does not pose a substantial threat — or at least no
more of one than any other major variants currently circulating.
“It is a concern that it is increasing, but it does not look
like something that is vastly different from what’s already been circulating in
the U.S. for the past three to four months,” said Andrew Pekosz, a professor of
molecular microbiology and immunology at Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg
School of Public Health. “So I think that’s what tempers my concern about this
variant, at this point in time.”
Even the WHO stated in its announcement that, based on the
available evidence, “the public health risk posed by EG.5 is evaluated as low
at the global level.”
The variant was identified in China in February and was first
detected in the United States in April. It is a descendant of the omicron
variant XBB.1.9.2 and has one notable mutation that helps it to evade
antibodies developed by the immune system in response to earlier variants and
vaccines. That advantage may be why EG.5 has become the dominant strain worldwide,
and it could be one reason COVID cases have started to rise again.
That mutation “may mean that more people are susceptible because
the virus can escape a little bit more of that immunity,” Pekosz said.
But EG.5, which has also been called Eris, does not appear to
have any new capacities when it comes to its contagiousness, its symptoms or
its likelihood of causing severe illness. Diagnostic tests and treatments such
as Paxlovid continue to be effective against it, Pekosz said.
Dr. Eric Topol, executive vice president of Scripps Research in
San Diego, said he wasn’t overly worried about the variant; however, he added,
he would feel better if the new vaccine formulation, which is expected to be
rolled out in the fall, was available. The updated booster was developed based
on another variant that is genetically similar to EG.5. It is expected to
provide better protection against EG.5 than last year’s shot, which targeted
the original coronavirus strain and a much earlier omicron variant that is only
distantly related.
“My main concern is for the people at high risk,” Topol said.
“The vaccines that they have had are too far removed from where the virus is
right now and where it’s going.”
Experts are more apprehensive about other emerging variants that
carry the same immune evading mutation as EG.5, plus another mutation that
makes the virus more transmissible. Scientists have nicknamed the combination
of these mutations “FLip,” because they both flip the positions of two amino
acids, labeled F and L. While these FLip variants make up only a small
proportion of COVID cases currently, they could trigger a greater increase in
infections in the coming months.
“I am generally very concerned about the overall rate of
evolution for SARS-CoV-2,” said Trevor Bedford, a professor in the vaccine and
infectious disease division at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center. “No single
variant has been that impactful, but the overall accumulation of these
mutations is having significant impact.”
Despite the growing number of mutations, it is highly unlikely
these new variants will cause a surge akin to the one that occurred in the
winter of 2022 with the first omicron variant, Topol said. “It’s nothing like
what we’ve been through with omicron in terms of how much more transmissible”
these variants are, he said. “But there will be more reinfections.”
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