--- title: COVID-19 Variant XBB.1.5: What to Know description: XBB.1.5, a new variant of the virus that causes COVID-19, is spreading in the U.S. and may start a wave of new infection and reinfections. canonical: https://time.com/6244167/covid-19-variant-xbb15/ author: Jamie Ducharme article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2023-01-03T18:07:02.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:51:29.025Z article:section: Health og:title: What to Know About the New XBB.1.5 Variant og:description: Experts worry that it could start a wave of new infections and reinfections og:url: https://time.com/6244167/covid-19-variant-xbb15/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1922bedf4edf526c/698a392809208f3a48419fa8/new-covid-variant.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1024 og:image:height: 576 og:image:alt: A woman wears a mask in the midst of a new COVID-19 surge og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: What to Know About the New XBB.1.5 Variant twitter:description: Experts worry that it could start a wave of new infections and reinfections twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1922bedf4edf526c/698a392809208f3a48419fa8/new-covid-variant.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # What to Know About the New XBB.1.5 Variant > Sponsored content. 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Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ## Video: Dr. Anthony Fauci Is Stepping Down. Here’s His Advice For His Successor [Watch (HLS stream): Dr. Anthony Fauci Is Stepping Down. Here’s His Advice For His Successor](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/WnmPuQgL.m3u8) (8:53)  _Published 2022-12-20. Dr. Anthony Fauci is leaving his post as NIAID director and chief medical advisor to President Biden. He hopes to impart a few lessons._  by [Jamie Ducharme](https://time.com/author/jamie-ducharme/)  ## Jamie Ducharme Ducharme is a contributor to TIME. Jan 3, 2023 6:07 PM UTC  People wear masks following a New York City advisory, strongly urging masking as COVID-19, flu, and RSV cases rise, on Dec. 12, 2022. People wear masks following a New York City advisory, strongly urging masking as COVID-19, flu, and RSV cases rise, on Dec. 12, 2022. Fatih Aktas/Anadolu Agency—Getty Images  by [Jamie Ducharme](https://time.com/author/jamie-ducharme/)  ## Jamie Ducharme Ducharme is a contributor to TIME. Jan 3, 2023 6:07 PM UTC A new variant of the virus that causes COVID-19 is spreading in the U.S., raising concerns about a potential wave of infections and [reinfections](https://time.com/6232103/covid-19-reinfections-effects/) to start the new year. The variant, called XBB.1.5, is a descendent of Omicron and a close relative of the XBB variant, which spread widely in Singapore and India this past fall. [A December study](https://www.cell.com/cell/fulltext/S0092-8674%2822%2901531-8) in the journal _Cell_ demonstrated that [XBB is better at evading immune defenses](https://time.com/6230059/covid-19-variants-omicron-vaccine/) gained from vaccination and prior infection, compared to other variants. This raises the risk of reinfection, a World Health Organization group [warned in October](https://www.who.int/news/item/27-10-2022-tag-ve-statement-on-omicron-sublineages-bq.1-and-xbb)—though the group said at the time that XBB does not appear to cause significantly more severe disease than previous strains. Along with its adeptness at getting around immune blockades, XBB.1.5 appears to be highly transmissible, thanks to some key mutations picked up as the virus evolved. These tweaks are stoking concerns about a surge in cases this winter—particularly given low rates of booster uptake and relaxed disease-mitigation measures. While there is limited research on XBB.1.5 at this point, here’s what we know so far. ## **How widespread is XBB.1.5 in the U.S.?** During the week ending Dec. 31, XBB.1.5 accounted for 40.5% of new sequenced COVID-19 cases in the U.S., [according to data](https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#variant-proportions) from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). It’s currently causing roughly 75% of new cases in the Northeast, which is often a bellwether for the rest of the country. Nationally representative diagnostic data from Walgreens, a COVID-19 testing provider across the U.S., shows [almost 40% of tests are now coming back positive](https://www.walgreens.com/healthcare-solutions/covid-19-index), though it’s not possible to say how many of those infections were due to XBB.1.5\. Hospitalizations are also [starting to tick upward nationwide](https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#hospitalizations), according to CDC data. ## **Do vaccines and treatments work against XBB.1.5?** While there isn’t much data on XBB.1.5 yet, research on its relative XBB provides some clues. Research recently [published](https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMc2214293) in the _New England Journal of Medicine_ (and based on a small number of people) suggests that while XBB is more immune-evasive than previous versions of the virus, people who have received the [updated bivalent booster](https://time.com/6236289/bivalent-booster-effective-data-shows/) are better protected against it than those who have not. Just 15% of people in the U.S. ages 5 and older have gotten a bivalent booster, [according to the CDC](https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#vaccinations%5Fvacc-people-booster-percent-pop5), which means many people are currently not as protected as they could be against the new variant. --- ### More from TIME --- Whether or not monoclonal antibody treatments are effective against XBB.1.5 is another concern. In the fall of 2022, federal health officials [acknowledged](https://www.cms.gov/monoclonal) that some monoclonal antibody therapies do not work well against newer variants, which is particularly concerning for immunocompromised people who do not respond well to vaccines. The recent _Cell_ study found that these therapies largely did not work against XBB, which suggests the same may be true for XBB.1.5. ## **Will XBB.1.5 lead to a new wave of Long COVID cases?** Long COVID, the name for enduring and often-debilitating symptoms that follow a case of COVID-19, can affect anyone infected by SARS-CoV-2, including those who are vaccinated and initially had mild disease. [Some data suggest](https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736%2822%2900941-2/fulltext) that people infected by earlier Omicron variants were less likely to develop Long COVID than those who caught Delta. But if XBB.1.5 spreads widely, even a small percentage of people developing long-term complications [could mean lots of new Long COVID cases](https://twitter.com/VirusesImmunity/status/1609928349551403010). Avoiding infection is the best way to stay healthy in both the short and long term. To do that, follow all the usual advice: stay up-to-date on vaccines and boosters, wear a [high-quality mask in public indoor areas](https://time.com/6139169/n95-best-mask-omicron-covid-19/), meet with others outdoors or in well-ventilated places if possible, and consider avoiding group gatherings if infection rates are high in your area. ## Transcript What will you do the first day that you are no longer head of n? I a i d. I'll probably sleep an extra hour and not get up at 5 in the morning, the way I have in the last 40 years. Dr. Anthony fauci announced in August that he is stepping down from his role in the federal government. He will leave the position he's held for 38 years as the Director of the National Institute of allergy and infectious diseases, as well as his role as chief medical advisor to President Biden. As a health reporter. I've spoken to dr. Fauci numerous times over the years about the major outbreaks during his career, Hive Bola, H1 N1, flu, SARS MERS, and of course covid-19 before his transition to a new role. This month, I took the opportunity to conduct an exit interview, to discuss his achievements, as well as his plans for the future. My wife jokingly calls it a rewiring, I actually call it sort of the next chapter in my professional and personal life, but I would like to do is to lecture and write an advice to the extent that my advice is solicited. I have to offer 54 years of experience as a scientist at the NIH. 38 years of running, what everyone agrees is the is the largest and most important infectious disease, research institution of the world and the privilege that I've had of advising seven, presidents of the United States over that almost 40 years. As we've gone over the last 38 years, that I've been in a position of leadership and policy making at the NIH, that things have really evolve into, unfortunately, Rather intense, what I would call hostility and divisiveness in our society where political ideation has really been very I think disruptive to the kind of cooperation and collaboration that you need. It becomes particularly distressing in the arena of Public Health goes. If there's one area where you would really like to have everyone pulling together. It would be as we confront a historic, pandemics such as cold, but that's not what we're seeing. We're seeing fundamental Public Health principles of being interpreted one way or the other, depending upon what your political ideology is. I mean, how can you possibly have a situation where we know, as a matter of fact that vaccines are safe and extraordinarily life-saving, if you look at the data and yet there were people prefer variety of misinformation disinformation and conspiracy theories. Don't want to get vaccinated that just doesn't make any common sense. You mentioned the seven presidents with whom you have worked. I wonder if you could quickly, provide Just a little perspective on what it was like to what it, what your job was like, under under each of them and, you know, you mentioned kind of the New Perspective, we now have on the intersection between politics and Science. And I wonder if you could come in a little bit on how you seen that change during the course of your career, the phenomenon of having advised seven presidents. Is that a lot of what I can do and the role I have during an Administration, depends on the circumstances that are resistant within the time frame of that particular Administration George W. Bush when it comes to HIV AIDS and my mind has had the most impact of anybody in the face of preventable, death and suffering. We have a moral duty to act. And we are acting and that has to do with the fact that he gave me the privilege in the honor of being one of the architects of the pet far program which as we know, I saved more than 20 million lives. So even though there's controversy about other aspects during the administration, the fact is when it comes to saving lives. That was, I think the epitome of what we seen, the Trump Administration, you know, that it did that's very recent and is very clear that they were difficulties. Damn, because I had to be put in the position of having to contradict then of the president for things that he has said, in the impression that he was giving that the virus was going to disappear like magic. Like, I'd krotchy chloroquine was the name of the new cure for for for covid-19, totally sure what the the president was referring to, but I believe is referring to a report that used both. Hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin together to have some possibility of being an affect many of the things that you hear out there are or what I had called. Anecdotal reports, they may be true, but they're anecdotal. So, the only thing that I was saying is that, if you really want a definitive Lee know, if something works that you got to do, the kind of trial that you get the good information, you know, I just felt I owed my responsibility to the American public to just stand up for what was data and evidence and facts and science. That put me in a very uncomfortable position of having a lot of opposition to me which has now continued on to this day. What would dealing with today is the reflection of the divisiveness in society where people talk about things that are Peyton Lee on true conspiracy theories, a normalization of untruth. Which is very dangerous because when Society shrug their shoulders and accept the fact that people can just say things that are Peyton Lee Falls and get away with it, you have to get into your infallible opinion be dictated by law. You personally attack me and with absolutely not a shred of evidence of anything you say. So I would like to make something clear to the committee. He's doing this for political reasons. What you need to do is he said in front of this committee, you think you're take down, if I was Ramadan, epidemiologist was not political, you know what? I'm going to say, what happens when he gets out, and accuses me of things that are completely untrue. Is that all of a sudden that Kindles the crazies out there, and I have life that threats upon my life Harassment of my family and my children will obscene phone calls because people are lying about me know, you know, I guess you could say, well, that's the way it goes. I can take the kid. Well, it is, it makes a difference. Not only is that dangerous appublichealth Alice. I think that's dangerous for our own democracy, to be honest with you. What advice, would you have for your successor? I mean, you've had a very story career and really have become Adept at finding that balance, as we discussed between, you know, standing up for the rigors of Science and communicating it to the public and navigating, you know, the, the current and inevitable, it will always be their political pressures. What advice would you have for your successor? Really to stick with the science? Number one, always go with the data with the evidence and although you may be involved in policy, stay Politics, do not at all show any ideology. One way or the other, just be a pure scientist. That's what you need in the job. 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