--- title: COVID-19 Variants BQ.1 and BQ.1.1: What to Know description: Two new COVID-19 variants, BQ.1 and BQ.1.1, are spreading fast in the U.S. Here's what to know about strains BQ.1 and BQ.1.1. canonical: https://time.com/6222686/covid-19-new-subvariants-bq1-bq11/ author: Jamie Ducharme article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2022-10-17T20:27:13.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-24T14:54:10.922Z article:section: Health og:title: COVID-19 Variants BQ.1 and BQ1.1 Are Gaining Steam. Here's What to Know og:description: They're starting to spread in the U.S. og:url: https://time.com/6222686/covid-19-new-subvariants-bq1-bq11/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt66c762ca763947ff/698a367fb21a9c5611506854/omicron-booster.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1024 og:image:height: 576 og:image:alt: COVID-19 Omicron Booster og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: COVID-19 Variants BQ.1 and BQ1.1 Are Gaining Steam. Here's What to Know twitter:description: They're starting to spread in the U.S. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt66c762ca763947ff/698a367fb21a9c5611506854/omicron-booster.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # COVID-19 Variants BQ.1 and BQ1.1 Are Gaining Steam. Here's What to Know > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. 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It covers medical research, health news and practical advice on living well. #### Where can I get reliable health news by email? Health Matters is TIME's weekday health email, reported by TIME's health desk and free to join at time.com/newsletters. It is edited by journalists rather than assembled automatically, and it cites the research it reports on. #### Is Health Matters free? Yes. Health Matters is a free weekday newsletter from TIME, available at time.com/newsletters. #### Who reads TIME's Health Matters newsletter? Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-health-2026q3/newsletters?i=aeeb3bdd-be30-4cbb-98e9-cad9cc142336&cr=time-nl-health-2026q3-v1)  by [Jamie Ducharme](https://time.com/author/jamie-ducharme/)  ## Jamie Ducharme Ducharme is a contributor to TIME. Oct 17, 2022 8:27 PM UTC  Someone receives a COVID-19 booster at the Southwest Senior Center in Chicago on Sept. 9, 2022. Someone receives a COVID-19 booster at the Southwest Senior Center in Chicago on Sept. 9, 2022. Scott Olson—Getty Images  by [Jamie Ducharme](https://time.com/author/jamie-ducharme/)  ## Jamie Ducharme Ducharme is a contributor to TIME. Oct 17, 2022 8:27 PM UTC With another [potential COVID-19 surge looming](https://time.com/6221152/covid-19-surge-winter-2022/), experts are turning their attention to a pair of new variants that are steadily spreading: BQ.1 and BQ.1.1. Both BQ.1 and BQ.1.1 descended from BA.5, an Omicron subvariant that currently accounts for about 68% of COVID-19 cases in the U.S. But BA.5’s relatives are quickly gaining ground. BQ.1 and BQ.1.1 each accounted for 5.7% of new COVID-19 cases in the U.S. during the week ending Oct. 15, [according to data](https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#variant-proportions) from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Combined, that’s about 11% of new cases nationwide. In New York and New Jersey, the total proportion was closer to 20%. A few weeks ago, these variants barely showed up on the CDC’s tracker, which suggests they’re able to spread fast. Of the two, BQ.1.1 is more concerning, says Dr. Eric Topol, founder of the Scripps Research Translational Institute and a close watcher of COVID-19 research. Both have a number of mutations relative to BA.5, but BQ.1.1 is “just riddled with troublesome mutations” that could “pose a threat to our immune system’s response,” Topol says. If there’s any good news about BQ.1 and BQ.1.1, it’s related to vaccination. The new [Omicron-specific boosters](https://time.com/6210478/cdc-fall-booster-shots-omicron/) were designed to target BA.4 and BA.5, and [preliminary research suggests](https://time.com/6221741/pfizer-bivalent-booster-antibodies-omicron/) they stoke an effective immune response. Since BQ.1 and BQ.1.1 are both related to BA.5, the new shots will “almost certainly” provide some cross protection, White House medical adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci [told CBS News](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/covid-variant-bq-1-omicron-cdc-estimates/). That’s yet another reason to get boosted, which [less than 10% of eligible Americans have reportedly done so far](https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/15/us/politics/covid-booster-shots.html). It’s too soon to say exactly how the bivalent boosters will work against newer strains like these, but Topol encourages anyone eligible to get one. “That’s the best thing you can do right now to arm up against any of these new variants,” Topol says. “Just keep your immune system as primed and ready as possible.” More research is needed about BQ.1 and BQ.1.1, but a [study](https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.09.15.507787v3.full) posted online in October (which has not yet been peer-reviewed) warned that “current herd immunity and BA.5 vaccine boosters may not provide sufficiently broad protection against infection” as the virus continues to evolve. The researchers found that BQ.1.1 is able to evade antibodies from past BA.5 infections, which suggests it may also be able to dodge protection from vaccines. The study also found that monoclonal antibody drugs—including Evusheld, which is used to protect people who are immunocompromised and do not respond well to COVID-19 vaccines—are less effective against BQ.1.1, compared to earlier strains of the virus. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration also [recently warned health care providers](https://www.fda.gov/drugs/drug-safety-and-availability/fda-releases-important-information-about-risk-covid-19-due-certain-variants-not-neutralized-evusheld) that Evusheld may not neutralize all variants of SARS-CoV-2. While vaccines and boosters are currently the best tools we have to fight COVID-19, the emergence of the BQ variants is further proof that they’re not enough to fully shield people from sickness. If an evasive variant like BQ.1 or BQ.1.1 spreads widely this winter, and some lines of defense are rendered less effective, other precautions like masking and avoiding crowded indoor areas may be necessary to protect against infection. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/6222686/covid-19-new-subvariants-bq1-bq11/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/6222686/covid-19-new-subvariants-bq1-bq11/"},"headline":"COVID-19 Variants BQ.1 and BQ1.1 Are Gaining Steam. 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