All About XEC: Insights into the Latest COVID Mutation

While it seems like COVID is long behind us and not something we need to worry about anymore, that is not entirely the case.

As reported by the BBC, scientists are worried about a new, "more contagious" variant of the virus, which has been named XEC.

This variety of the COVID-19 virus is rapidly spreading across Europe, and experts believe it could soon become the dominant strain.

The BBC writes that the variant was first detected in Germany at the beginning of the summer in June. Over the summer it has slowly spread to other countries throughout Europe.

XEC comes from the omicron variant, a hybrid of the omicron subvariants KS.1.1 and KP.3.3.

COVID data analyst Mike Honey wrote on X (formerly Twitter) that it is now quickly spreading throughout Europe, North America, and Asia.

Honey added that XEC has had particularly strong growth in Germany and Denmark.

Eric Topol, the director of the Scripps Research Translational Institute in La Jolla, California, posted about the new COVID variant on September 15, writing, "At this juncture, the XEC variant appears to be the most likely one to get legs next."

Topol told the LA Times that XEC is starting to really get going and that it will take "many weeks, a couple months, before it takes hold and starts to cause a wave. XEC is definitely taking charge."

The symptoms of XEC are nearly identical to those of the previous COVID variants. They include sore throat, tiredness, cough, body aches, fever, loss of smell, and poor appetite.

Covid vaccines have been updated to include previous new variants. Therefore, experts expect that since XEC is a sub-family of the omicron lineage, the vaccines should offer enough protection to help keep people from getting severely ill or ending up in the hospital.

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