A short update on how waning immunity and immune evasion by convergent mutants BQ.1.1 and XBB stack together. Data suggest that most serum obtained ~7.5 months after BA.1 breakthrough infection would hardly neutralize BQ.1.1 and XBB. (NT50 of 20 is the lower limit of our assay)
Updated figures on pediatric seroprevalence estimates shows that 86.3% of children have been infected by SARS-2 — nearly ever 9 in 10 children have had COVID. How many times have they had it? How many more times will they have it? What are the consequences of more reinfections?
This is very good news.
The XBB variant wave in Singapore is in descent
https://moh.gov.sg
XBB and BQ.1.1 are 2 of the most immune evasive variants and Singapore was the first country to experience a wave induced by one of them, now letting up
91% reduction of Covid deaths for age 50+ with 2 boosters, August 2022, vs unvaccinated
BA.5 wave
https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#rates-by-vaccine-status…