Advisory Board September 26, 2024
A new subvariant of the coronavirus, called XEC, is picking up steam in Europe and starting to draw attention as a potential threat for COVID-19 surges in the United States this fall and winter. But experts say current vaccines should still offer protection.
Toolkit: COVID-19 Vaccine Communications Readiness Assessment
What is XEC?
XEC is a subvariant of the omicron family and a hybrid between two previously documented subvariants: KP.3 and KS.1.1.
“XEC represents a fairly minor evolution relative to the SARS-CoV-2 diversity currently in circulation, and is not a highly derived novel variant such as those that were granted Greek letters,” like alpha, delta, and omicron, said Francois Balloux, a computational biologist at University College London and director of the...
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