There’s a new COVID-19 variant. What's JN.1, will vaccines work against it?

The COVID-19 virus has seemingly slipped from our minds and become a nightmare that we would all like to forget. However, the detection of a new variant of the virus has got scientists worried. Late last week, the United States’ Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) flagged a new variant, known as JN.1, in its report, with officials saying they were “learning” about it. What is JN.1 and why is it getting attention right now? Here’s everything you need to know about the latest variant. What is JN.1? JN.1, the emerging COVID variant, was first detected Luxembourg on 25 August, followed by England, Iceland, France and the United States. According to COVID scientists, JN.1 is a descendant of the BA.2.86, also known as ‘ Pirola ’ – which came from Omicron. Amesh Adalja, MD, a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, was quoted as telling Prevention.com, “JN.1 is another Omicron variant.” According to experts, the virus has once again mutate; the BA.2.86 underwent a ‘Flip mutation’ and turned into the JN.1, which now has the ability to bind to our cells even stronger than other Omicron variants and as an increased transmissibility too. Dr Thomas Russo, a professor and chief of infectious diseases at the University at Buffalo in New York, stated that JN.1 has an additional mutation on its spike protein from BA.2.86, which is what COVID uses to latch onto your cells and make you sick. **Also read: Is COVID-19 leading to more heart attacks in India?** How prevalent is the JN.1 variant? Since being detected in August, JN.1 has since been identified in 130 infections, including cases in England, France, the US and 15 other countries. However, as fewer COVID-19 cases are being sequenced now, experts believe that this number is only a fraction of the actual number of JN.1 cases in circulation. The CDC in its report also stated that JN.1 only makes up less than 0.1 per cent of COVID-19 viruses. However, that is changing, as more cases are popping up. “With the winter and holiday season approaching, this strain is expected to become ‘the winter variant’,” Dr Rajendram Rajnarayanan, of the New York Institute of Technology campus in Jonesboro, Arkansas, told Salon. “With travel and the holidays coming up, we know that it’s gonna spread everywhere,” Rajnarayanan told Salon in a video call. “This has all the features of becoming a dominant lineage like EG.5 or XBB.1.16.6.” And Dr Russo agrees. “JN.1 has been described in a number of countries, including the US, Iceland, Portugal, Spain, and the Netherlands. It’s also increasing in frequency in France — it seems to be taking off.” [caption id=“attachment_13363672” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] A couple wearing protective masks walks with a rose on a street in Shanghai, China. JN.1 has since been identified in 130 infections, including cases in England, France, the US and 15 other countries. File image/Reuters[/caption] Are there any specific symptoms to look out for? Currently, there’s no data that suggests that the symptoms from the JN.1 variant are any different from the ones from other COVID variants. However, experts note that if one experiences these symptoms, they should isolate and seek a test. The symptoms are: fever or chills, cough, shortness of breath, fatigue, muscle or body aches, headaches, new loss of taste or smell, sore throat, congestion or a runny nose, nausea and diarrhoea. Should we be worried then? While the variant isn’t the dominant one yet, some experts are concerned that it could pose a health risk in the future. Dr Thomas Russo notes that due to the mutation to the spike protein, JN.1 seems to be much more immune invasive, making it quite devious. “There is some data that suggest JN.1’s parent BA.2.86 may be more transmissible than previous variants,” he added. But even though it may be easily transmissible, doctors believe that the current vaccines against COVID would be effective. The CDC has observed that the spike protein is part of the virus that vaccines target and, as a result, the updated COVID-19 vaccine should work against JN.1. “The updated vaccine is closer to JN.1 than our old vaccine,” Dr Russo told Prevention.com. “The hope is that, even if we see more cases with JN.1, the updated vaccine will protect against severe disease.” Another doctor, Dr T Ryan Gregory, an evolutionary and genome biologist at the University of Guelph in Canada, said that he wasn’t particularly perturbed about JN.1, saying: “I am not so concerned about any one variant causing a huge wave anymore. “I don’t think wondering if any particular new variant will take over and cause a huge wave is the right way to think about variants anymore,” he was quoted as telling Salon. **Also read: Is it time to start believing in the COVID-19 ‘lab leak’ theory?** A COVID winter? The emergence of a new variant before the winter has also caused doctors some amount of concern. Experts note that each winter, they have seen a surge in COVID cases since the pandemic began. Even the World Health Organization has warned of “concerning” COVID-19 trends in advance of winter, calling for increased vaccinations and surveillance. “We continue to see concerning trends for COVID-19 ahead of the winter season,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told an online news conference in September. “Deaths are increasing in some parts of West Asia and Asia, intensive care unit admissions are increasing in Europe and hospitalisations are increasing in several regions,” he said. Maria Van Kerkhove, the WHO’s technical lead on COVID-19, also expressed worry about the upcoming winter. “When we get to colder months, in some countries, people tend to spend more time indoors together, and viruses that transmit through the air like COVID will take advantage of that,” she said. Moreover, people are already vulnerable to diseases in the winter as influenza and respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV are also circulating. As one doctor has noted, “The JN.1 variant shows us what is out there. It is a reminder that the virus continues to evolve in many different ways. Our best approach is not to rely only on one measure but to take a layered approach that includes vaccination but also mitigation.” With inputs from agencies