At the beginning of the ninth (and umpteenth) wave of Covid-19 in France, a sub-lineage of the Omicron variant is about to become the majority, the BQ1.1 variant.
Whether in mainland France or overseas, the incidence rate for Covid-19 is on the rise. On November 30, 68,362 cases were recorded, an increase of almost 40% in one week. The guilty ? the Omicron variant, responsible for 100% of contamination. Omicron having mutated himself, his BA.5 sub-lineage is the majority, with 93% of cases at the beginning of November, warned Public Health France. However, a regularly mutating virus, this BA.5 sublineage also has a variant named BQ1.1 (itself a sublineage of BQ.1).
The health agency indicated in its weekly update of November 24 that the contaminations via this sub-lineage of Omicron had increased with 39% of the interpretable sequences at the beginning of November. This variant, spotted in Nigeria in July, has since been detected in 65 countries in October, said WHO. The Organization also added that there are no “severity or immune escape data from human studies” yet on this subvariant of Omicron. Brigitte Autran, president of Covars – successor body to the Scientific Council – also indicated on November 30 at the microphone of BFM TV that it was “a more contagious variant”, adding that the “BA.5 variant is already swept away by BQ.1.1, this is true all over the world” she said.
Is the BQ.1.1 variant resistant to vaccines?
In a communicated, the WHO has warned that the multiple mutations to arrive at the BQ.1.1 subvariant could give it a resistance advantage against our immune system “compared to other circulating Omicron sublines, and therefore a higher risk of reinfection. high is a possibility that requires further investigation.” Asked by Free lunchMircea Sofonea, lecturer in epidemiology at Montpellier, explained this mechanism of better resistance to our immune defences: “If we compare to the group of the BA5 variant, its ancestor, mutations have occurred in key places” a reduction in the immune responses obtained via vaccination or previous contaminations.
Release echoed studies on the BQ.1.1 variant. One of the researchers, Olivier Schwartz of the Pasteur Institute, explained to the media that five months after the injection of a dose of vaccine, “the level of antibodies capable of neutralizing this virus is very low, even zero” he warned. The risk of contamination, despite vaccination, is therefore significant. However, as for the virulence of this sub-variant, nothing is determined, but the experts want to be reassuring, and patient.
What are the effects of the BQ.1.1 variant?
“This variant is more contagious but we do not yet know if it is more wicked”, warned the president of Covars on BFM TV. In mid-November, Santé Publique presented in a letter that there was “to date no indication that BQ.1 or BQ.1.1 is associated with a clinical presentation or a different severity from the other Omicron sublines. “.
Mircea Sofonea also felt that “for the moment, nothing says that this virus is more virulent, we have no signal in this sense”, but said she feared an increase in “reinfections”. Many Internet users and doctors have said that among the most common symptoms of the BQ.1.1 variant were cited stomach aches and diarrhea. In an article in Le Parisien dating from October 2022, virologist Yannick Simonin temporized these claims, originally from an unreliable source: “You have to be very careful and nothing allows you to say a switch of symptoms. I spent my time saying that we did not have enough data to affirm it” he hammered.