Editor’s Note: Pediatric Infectious Disease Specialist and AAHPO Board Member Tsoline Kojaoghlanian, MD reviewed the article below and approved sharing it with AAHPO newsletter readers.

In early November 2023, the latest COVID variant, called JN.1, caused less than 5% of COVID-19 cases in the U.S. Now it is estimated to cause more than 60% of them. Virologists including Andy Pekosz, a professor in the Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, are paying attention.

Here, Pekosz explains what virologists are seeing, what this new variant means for case rates and treatments, and why it’s so important for more people to get the updated COVID-19 vaccine rolled out this fall.

What’s most important to understand about this variant?
This latest variant should be a reminder that we have tools to fight off COVID infection and minimize severe disease: Tests detect JN.1, the new vaccines protect against severe disease, and antivirals are still capable of treating infection from JN.1. We just have to use these tools more effectively than we have over the last six months.

So far, only 8% of children and 19% of adults have received the latest vaccine, so a lot of people are missing out on protection from this virus.

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Editor’s Note: Pediatric Infectious Disease Specialist and AAHPO Board Member Tsoline Kojaoghlanian, MD agrees with the article below, which asserts that Paxlovid is helpful and should be more widely prescribed and taken.

With COVID-19 cases again on the upswing, the antiviral Paxlovid has been slow to gain traction among patients and doctors even though the medication reduces hospitalizations and deaths.

A recent National Institutes of Health study of about 1 million people found that only 15% at risk for severe disease took a five-day course of the prescription medicine. Of the patients who took Paxlovid, the medication reduced the risk of death by 73% and hospitalizations dropped 26%, showing the medicine is highly effective for people at risk of severe complications.

COVID-19 deaths, hospitalizations and visits to the emergency room increased at double-digit rates in the last week of December, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported. But deaths and hospital stays remain far below earlier peaks.

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