New JN.1 COVID variant may become a concern – GWC Mag

After recently writing about the BA.2.86 COVID-19 variant that probably won’t be a major issue to individuals who have been vaccinated or had a natural infection, another variant, JN.1, is concerning public health experts.

This article will review what JN.1 is, whether it is a public health concern, and whether vaccines will be effective against it.

What is the JN.1 COVID-19 variant?

As I mentioned, the variant is identified as JN.1, a subvariant of BA.2.86. Like BA.2.86, JN.1 is related to the Omicron variant that was first identified in late 2021. Up until recently, the CDC grouped JN.1 with BA.2.86 in its data. JN.1 was first detected in the U.S. in September 2023 and is termed “a notable descendent lineage” of Omicron subvariant BA.2.86 by the World Health Organization.

Like BA.2.86, JN.1 has numerous mutations that may make the virus more capable of causing infections in people who have previously had COVID-19 or who have received the COVID-19 vaccines.

However, the CDC states, “At this time, there is no evidence that JN.1 presents an increased risk to public health relative to other currently circulating variants.”

We don’t know whether this strain is more or less infectious (that is, the ability to spread from one person to another) than the previous strains.

So what we know right now is that it may evade an individual’s immunity, whether from vaccines or previous infection. And we don’t know if it’s more infectious or will cause more severe illness. We would all like the answers to these questions, but it takes time.

What is the current status of the JN.1 variant?

On 8 December 2023, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) began. tracking the JN.1 variant and published some key points about it:

1. Cases — The new variant comprises an estimated 15–29% of COVID-19 cases in the United States.
2. Severity — The CDC stated that “There is no indication of increased severity from JN.1 at this time.” This is good news.
3. Transmission — CDC projects that JN.1 will continue to increase as a proportion of COVID-19 infections. JN.1 is currently the fastest-growing variant in the United States.

Are vaccines effective against it?

In a preprint published on 26 November 2023 in bioRxiv, which has not been peer-reviewed, researchers found the new XBB.1.5 vaccines (from Pfizer and Moderna) protect against XBB.1.5 (another COVID-19 variant) along with JN.1 and other “emergent” viruses. According to the study, when given to uninfected people, the updated vaccines boosted antibodies about 27-fold against XBB.1.5 and about 13- to 27-fold against JN.1 and other emergent viruses.

In other words, the currently available COVID-19 vaccines boost the immune system substantially against the variant. There is no data available on whether naturally infected individuals will be immune to the new variant.

Summary

Although the new JN.1 COVID-19 variant is spreading across the USA fairly rapidly, it does not appear to be dangerous to individuals who are fully vaccinated against COVID-19. Individuals who are not vaccinated with the current booster are probably at the greatest risk of contracting this variant.

At this time, the CDC and other public health agencies are closely monitoring the transmission and severity of the disease, and I am sure they will raise an alarm if things get worse.

For those of you who dismiss these new variants, remember that over 3% of deaths in the USA are caused by COVID-19. That translates to over 1000 additional deaths every week that are attributed to COVID-19. If one of these variants does avoid immunity (whether from vaccines or from natural infection), it could lead to another disaster. COVID-19 is not going away any time soon.