Jan 2023: “Together, our findings indicate that BQ and XBB subvariants present serious threats to current COVID-19 vaccines, render inactive all authorized antibodies, and may have gained dominance in the population because of their advantage in evading antibodies.”
“The BQ and XBB subvariants of SARS-CoV-2 Omicron are now rapidly expanding, possibly due to altered antibody evasion properties deriving from their additional spike mutations. Here, we report that neutralization of BQ.1, BQ.1.1, XBB, and XBB.1 by sera from vaccinees and infected persons was markedly impaired, including sera from individuals boosted with a WA1/BA.5 bivalent mRNA vaccine.”
As at 6 Jan 2023 – XBB1.5 the most recent concerning variant, first detected in New York, is now spreading rapidly in New Jersey and Massachusetts.
Study are outlined in the following image, adapted from https://www.cell.com/cell/fulltext/S0092-8674(22)01531-8?_
