Will JN.1 cause more severe symptoms as it becomes the dominant strain of the new coronavirus in Europe and the United States?

The new coronavirus has a new variant. On December 8th local time, the official website of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for the first time included JN.1 in the COVID-19 near-term forecast and called JN.1 the fastest-growing COVID-19 variant in the United States.

On the 13th, the National Health Commission reported that the JN.1 variant of the new crown has spread in 12 countries. The JN.1 variant was first discovered in Luxembourg in August this year. Although this variant has not yet spread in China, many citizens have expressed concern.Will the new variant cause more severe symptoms? It is the high incidence period of respiratory infectious diseases in winter and spring. What should citizens pay attention to in disease prevention? Journalists from Liberation Daily and The Paper interviewed Wang Xinyu, deputy director of the Department of Infectious Diseases, Huashan Hospital Affiliated to Fudan University, on this issue.

What is the difference between the new JN.1 strain and the previous strains?

?Wang Xinyu explained that the JN.1 variant is a sub-branch of BA.2.86, which was first discovered in Denmark on July 24, 2023, and was listed as a “variant under monitoring” (VUM) by the WHO on August 17. On November 21, 2023, the World Health Organization adjusted the BA.2.86 variant of the new coronavirus Omicron and its sub-branches to “variant of interest” (VOI). The previously concerned XBB variant is derived from BA.2.10 and BA.2.75. Therefore, the relationship between JN.1 and XBB variants is relatively distant. JN.1 is not a derivative of XBB, but it is still a descendant of the Omicron BA.2 variant.

Will the “popular” new strain cause more severe symptoms?

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention stated in a report on the prevalence of JN.1 on December 8 that the continuous growth of the JN.1 variant indicates that it may be more contagious or better at evading the human immune system. But there is currently no evidence that JN.1 poses a greater risk to public health than other currently popular variants. There is also no sign that the severity of JN.1 has increased. According to the data monitored by the United States in recent times, as of December 8th, JN.1 accounted for 15% to 29% of cases in the United States. JN.1 is currently the fastest-growing variant in the country, so the US CDC expects the proportion of JN.1 cases to continue to increase. According to UK data, as of November 21, the latest genomic sequencing data showed that it is the fastest-growing variant in the UK, with a weekly growth advantage of 84%, followed by its parent BA.2.86 (23%) and JD.1.1 (a sub-lineage of the XBB variant) 22%.

?In other words, JN.1 is the “popular” virus strain of COVID-19 in Europe and the United States, but it does not appear to have caused a tendency of the previous peaks. From the previous trend, it will sooner or later be replaced by new variants, so citizens do not need to be overly nervous, just keep an eye on it.

How should citizens prevent respiratory infections in winter and spring? Wang Xinyu emphasized that citizens need to have a deep understanding that winter and spring have always been the high incidence season of respiratory diseases, and this rule has always existed. After the outbreak of the new crown epidemic, everyone has a deeper understanding of respiratory infectious diseases. Good habits developed over the years, such as wearing masks indoors in crowded places, maintaining a certain social distance when communicating with others, good cough etiquette, and washing hands frequently, are effective in preventing various respiratory infectious diseases. For vulnerable groups, they should also be vaccinated against influenza and updated new crown vaccines in a timely manner to protect themselves from related diseases as much as possible. Of course, when there are obvious respiratory symptoms, it is not recommended that everyone work or go to school with illness, otherwise it will increase the risk of illness for themselves and those around them.

How should we view the global spread of the new coronavirus in recent years??

From the end of 2019 to the end of 2023, the new coronavirus has existed for four years and has experienced the entire process of a global pandemic of infectious diseases from beginning to end. Wang Xinyu believes that the public should be able to correctly understand the relationship between infectious diseases and humans. Simply put, infectious diseases are produced due to human aggregation, spread due to communication and contact between humans, and therefore, as long as humans exist as a population on the earth, infectious diseases will always exist with humans.

Humans hope to better protect themselves by understanding the transmission patterns of infectious diseases and reduce the harm they cause to themselves, while pathogens are constantly looking for human weaknesses and spreading themselves through human-to-human transmission. Old infectious diseases may gradually fade away due to various reasons, and new unknown infectious diseases may be waiting for opportunities ahead. Facing infectious diseases without panic, a calm attitude and a scientific spirit are the right choices for humans.