What Are The New NB.1.8.1 COVID Variant Symptoms And When Will It Hit The U.S.? Doctors Explain
The new is variant called NB.1.8.1 and is in the same family as Omicron.
Here's what to look out for and potential symptoms.
You probably haven't thought much about COVID-19 recently, and with good reason. While the virus is still circulating, cases have generally been down across the country. Unfortunately, that may change soon.
There's a new COVID variant called NB.1.8.1 that's suddenly getting a lot of attention. NB.1.8.1 has been named a 'variant under monitoring' by the World Health Organization (WHO)—meaning, the global health agency is keeping a close eye on it. It also has 'increasing proportions globally,' according to the WHO, which points out that the variant has shown up in 22 countries so far and seems to be spreading quickly.
"This particular variant is concerning simply because of the rapid spread," says Perry N. Halkitis, PhD, dean of the Rutgers School of Public Health. "However, it remains to be seen how widespread this variant would be given the immunity that exists in the other parts of the world."
The news comes on the heels of the Trump administration limiting access to COVID-19 vaccines, including revising its guidance for children and pregnant women, raising questions about what to look out for with this variant and how to protect yourself. Here's what doctors want you to know.
Meet the experts: Thomas Russo, MD, professor and chief of infectious disease at the University at Buffalo in New York. Perry N. Halkitis, PhD, dean of the Rutgers School of Public Health.
NB.1.8.1 is a variation of the JN.1 COVID variant, which is from the Omicron family. 'It doesn't seem to be a huge jump, like we saw from the Delta to Omicron strains,' says Thomas Russo, MD, professor and chief of infectious disease at the University at Buffalo in New York.
With that, the symptoms of NB.1.8.1 aren't wildly different from what we've seen in the past with COVID. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), those include:
Fever or chills
Cough
Shortness of breath or trouble breathing
Sore throat
Congestion or a runny nose
New loss of taste or smell
Fatigue
Muscle or body aches
Headache
Nausea or vomiting
It's already here. 'There have already been a few cases detected in the U.S.,' Dr. Russo says. (The WHO points out that there was a big jump in NB.1.8.1 cases detected in the Americas between early April to mid-May, going from 1.6 percent of cases to nearly 5 percent.)
It hasn't yet shown up on the CDC's variant tracker, though.
It's hard to say as of this second, given that the variant has only recently taken off, Dr. Russo says. However, it does seem to be spreading fast, which suggests that it's highly infectious, he says.
Here's where things get slightly tricky. In the past, the No.1 piece of advice doctors would share on protecting yourself from COVID-19 was to get the COVID vaccine. But federal health officials recently changed eligibility for the vaccine, putting it out of reach for most people who don't have specific underlying health conditions.
Worth noting: A New England Journal of Medicine paper on this change that was written by Food and Drug Administration officials stated that pregnant women would have access to the vaccine, but Health and Human Services secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said in an announcement on X this week that he would be removing that access.
That can make prevention tricky, Halkitis says. "Individuals who have no vaccination or those who just have the first generation vaccination are particularly susceptible since they don't have updated immunity against the variants that have been evolving over the course of the last five years," he says.
So…? If you're not eligible for the vaccine and you're worried about getting COVID-19, Russo recommends wearing a mask in crowded indoor situations and trying to avoid people who are obviously sick.
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