New JN.1 COVID variant may be more contagious but less severe

Officials with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are warning that flu and COVID, combined with holiday gatherings, could lead to a spike in illnesses this winter.

A new variant of coronavirus may be more contagious but less severe.

The number of COVID-19 cases is rising as a record number of people are traveling this holiday season.

A new, fast-spreading variant named JN.1 now makes up 44% of all cases nationwide, more than doubling (21.3% vs. 44.2%) its share from the week before, according to the CDC COVID Data Tracker: Variant Proportions.

“The World Health Organization has called this new JN.1 variant a variant of interest. What does that mean?,” asked CBS’s Lilia Luciano.

“JN.1, which we’re now seeing, is one that clearly is spreading very quickly around the world. And there’s evidence that it is actually causing (an) increased number of illnesses. And particularly in some who have already had COVID before or may have been vaccinated before,” said Michael Osterholm, Epidemiologist and Director for the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota.

This comes as 25 states report high levels of respiratory illnesses including COVID-19 and the flu.

The CDC sent an urgent alert this month about low vaccination rates. Less than 20% of adults and less than 10% of children have received the new COVID-19 vaccine.

“Our concern is that while the overall number of serious illnesses per number of people infected will be lower than we saw previous in the pandemic. If we’re seeing widespread transmission, we’re going to see death go up, we’re gonna see the number of hospitalized patients going up. And so that, to us, is really a critical challenge in the days ahead,” said Osterholm.

A World Health Organization report issued last week said that even though JN.1 is better at evading our immune systems, the latest vaccine is still “likely to be effective.”

“The pandemic was so traumatic for people that they just wanted it to be over and done with. They want to put it in the back window and never think about it again. But COVID is going to be with us for the foreseeable future. That does not mean it has to dominate or rule our lives if we take sensible precautions,” said Dr. Jerome Adams, former U.S. Surgeon General and Executive Director, Health Equity Initiatives, Purdue University.

So far, the data shows that symptoms for this variant appear similar to previous waves, and experts tell us the best precautions are to get vaccinated for respiratory illnesses, to test before large family gatherings, and if you feel sick, to stay home.

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