'Kraken' the new Covid subvariant is spreading rapidly and worrying health officials

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced on December 31st that a new form of the Covid-19 omicron variant has become one of the dominant forms of illness in the United States. 

Known as the XBB.1.5 Omicron subvariant, this new variation of the virus has experts worried about a coming wave of fresh infections. 

The CDC revealed that the new omicron subvariant comprised about 40.5% of all known infections in the United States. 

Forbes journalist Bruce Lee noted that the number of Americans infected with XBB.1.5 is “up from 21.7% the week prior,” a huge jump in just seven days. 

“That one-week jump has vaulted the XBB.1.5 ahead of the BQ.1 and the BQ.1.1 subvariant as the new dominant subvariant in the U.S.,” Lee added.

Luckily the new omicron subvariant doesn’t seem to be more deadly than any previous form of Covid-19 nor does it appear to make its victims any more ill than previous variants according to a CBS News interview with the director of the CDC Dr. Barbara Mahon. 

Mahon also noted that while hospitalizations may be growing around the country, it isn’t necessarily tied to the new variant.

“We’re seeing hospitalizations have been notching up overall across the country,” Mahon said, adding that they “don’t appear to be notching up more in the areas that have more XBB.1.5.”

Mahon added that scientists still don’t know much about XBB.1.5 with the most important thing being that we really don’t understand if it is more contagious than previous forms of Covid-19. 

XBB, the main variant from which the XBB.1.5 variant is derived, has been detected in at least 35 countries according to the World Health Organization and was responsible for a number of Covid-19 waves in October of 2022. 

“Studies performed in the lab have found that XBB is capable of evading antibodies from previous Covid infections or vaccinations,” according to Medical Doctor and CBS News correspondent Akshay Syal, “meaning that being exposed to the virus would mean someone is more likely to get sick or reinfected and show symptoms.”

Unfortunately, the XBB.1.5 subvariant seems to have inherited this trait along with a few other key mutations that have allowed it to spread relatively quickly in the general population. 

“These tweaks are stoking concerns about a surge in cases this winter,” wrote Jaime Ducharme of Time Magazine, “particularly given low rates of booster uptake and relaxed disease-mitigation measures.”

The biggest worry now for health officials is the return of this year's normal levels of holiday travel may have been just what was needed to spark a new wave of the pandemic. 

While little research on the subvariant has been done, some research does suggest that those who have an updated bivalent booster may be more protected than those who haven’t stayed up-to-date with their Covid boosters. 

The New England Journal of Medicine published a recent paper on the topic noting that people “who received either one or two monovalent Covid-19 vaccine boosters had much lower neutralization activity against omicron subvariants.”