According to the virologist Francesco Broccolo, of the University of Salento, the subvariant XBB.1.5, also known as Gryphon, could be the cause of the increase in infections in China
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The wave of Covid-19 that is sweeping the Chinese it’s getting scarier. After the provision of the Minister of Health Orazio Schillaci, who in Italy imposes the obligation to swab all passengers from China, we are trying to clarify which subvariant of the Sars-CoV-2 virus may have caused the epidemic to soar in the country. A diffusion that would also seem to be aggravated by the release of the restriction measures. According to the virologist Francesco Broccolo, of the University of Salento, the subvariant XBB.1.5, also known as Gryphon, could be the cause of the increase in infections in China. However, he clarifies, at the moment it is only a hypothesis. He declared it to Ansa.
Broccoli’s words
deepening
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Among the latest arrivals, but still part of the Omicron variant family, the XBB subvariant would also seem to be linked to the rise in cases recorded in the United States. In New York, in particular, the same has increased by 140% in the last month, recording a hospitalization rate higher than that seen with the Delta variant, and detected during the Covid wave of summer 2021. “It’s true that in China there has been a short transition from a severe restriction policy to a sudden opening, but it is also true that the population has received a vaccine, Sinovac, with an administration equal to 241 doses per 100 inhabitants, equal to that of the UK,” noted Broccolo. According to some data recently published in the New England Journal of Medicine, the vaccine has been shown to be 90% effective against severe forms of the disease, 86% against deaths, 88% against hospitalizations and 66% effective in protecting against infection. However, neither the end of the restrictions nor the vaccine situation is enough to explain what is happening in Chinesesecond Broccoli. “Something very important is happening, the number of deaths from Covid is uncontrollable and so far there has only been a hint of the possibility that one or more new variants are circulating,” explained the expert.
The responsible subvariant
Although there are still no certainties, for the experts it would be the XBB.1.5 subvariant, which has been circulating in the country since October, to be responsible for the increase in infections. This would be the result of the recombination of two other subvariants of Omicron: the BJ.1 (BA.2.10.1.1) and the BA.2.75 (BA.2.75.3.1.1.1). “There is a veritable swarm of variantssome of which would represent a convergent evolution, first of all the XBB, which is rapidly replacing common subvariants, such as BQ.1 and BQ.1.1. To make it advance so quickly would be a mutation, called F486P, which would allow it to escape the antibodies generated by both Omicron 5 infections and vaccines, including the bivalent mRNA vaccine. It would also strengthen the link with the ACE2 receptor, i.e. the entry gate of the virus, present above all on the cells of the respiratory epithelium”, concluded Broccolo.
