The JAMA website, which is part of the Journal of the American Medical Association network, raised an alert on November 22nd that a novel variant of the SARS-CoV-2 had been detected and flagged as a “variant under monitoring” because it’s spreading very rapidly. Labeled the XEC variant, it has some unique features that make it stand out from previous variants, and its infection rate is quickly overtaking the penetration of the prior versions. On October 13th, the incidence of XEC cases worldwide comprised 17% of all samples tested globally, up from 9% on September 22nd. That’s almost doubled in just three weeks! In the US, the growth was even steeper, with estimates that XEC infections comprised nearly 28% of all tests, compared with just 1% at the beginning of August 2024.
Once a variant is flagged as “under monitoring,” it indicates that the World Health Organization (WHO) is advising public health authorities worldwide to start watching out for signs of it spreading into their communities. XEC is a different form of viral evolution because it arose from a fusion of one mutant line in recombination with two other variants (JN.1 and KP.2). It’s suggested by Dr. Bill Hanage, Associate Director of the Center for Communicable Disease Dynamics at the Harvard School of Public Health, that a three-way mutation such as this comes about when a person who is immuno-deficient becomes infected with multiple variants at the same time.
Why being a recombinant SARS-CoV-2 virus matters.
Although XEC is not the first recombinant version of COVID-19, it does bring with it some special dangers. According to Dr. Nicole Doria-Rose, chief of the Antibody Immunity Section at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases’ Vaccine Research Center, “recombination helps the virus mutate faster,” which gives it unwanted advantages in terms of virulence, increased transmissibility, and ability to evade existing immune barriers.
How bad is the XEC virus variant?
This is the big question. So far, since the first outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been at least one major evolutionary change in the virus each year. There hasn’t been one yet in 2024, and there’s concern that the XEC variant could be the one. One way to compare the danger of variants is by measuring the effective reproduction number, which represents “the expected number of new infections caused by an infectious individual in a population where some individuals may no longer be susceptible.” In a research letter published on The Lancet website, scientists said that “XEC has an effective reproduction number that is 13% higher than that of … the most predominant SARS-CoV-2 variant in the world as of early November. That suggests that XEC could potentially outcompete other variants.”
Other experiments found that people who had recovered from at least one prior infection by an earlier variant were more susceptible to re-infection by the XEC variant than by earlier variants. This led scientists to warn that “people shouldn’t think that (prior) SARS-CoV-2 infections alone will generate sufficient immune responses to protect against reinfection (by XEC).”
How to protect against the XEC variant.
We have written many articles about COVID-19, and throughout, we have stuck to a fundamental theme: prevention is better than cure. As well as always highlighting the #1 option of vaccination, way back in April 2021, we started explaining that a major breakthrough was then imminent with the development by the Canadian/Israeli startup SaNOtize, which brought the unique power of nitric oxide (NO) onto the battlefield against the new virus.
SaNOtize launched its innovative Enovid NONS (nitric oxide nasal spray), which blocks infectious airborne viruses by halting viral replication at the point of entry in the upper nasal cavity. NONS blocks the ability of airborne viruses and microbes to find a lodging place and infect your nasal passages. Free-ranging viruses are the primary vectors of COVID-19, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), and influenza. Nitric oxide creates a chemical barrier with antiviral and antimicrobial qualities. It forms a physical barrier in the nasal passages to stop viruses and microbes from finding a surface to penetrate. Nitric oxide doesn’t just block the viruses but actually kills them. This happens because nitric oxide interferes with mRNA transcription and the replication of viral ribonucleotide and RNA synthesis.
Just this month, SaNOtize relaunched Enovid Nasal Spray under the new name NOWONDER™ Nasal Cleanser. They are exactly the same product, only the brand name has changed. NOWONDER™ is sold over-the-counter; no prescription is required. Buy in bulk from IsraelPharm.com and save!
