What Is JN.1? Understanding the New COVID Variant
We’ve all learned to live with countless viral threats during the age of COVID, but the most advanced current strain of the Coronavirus may be one of the most troublesome and sickly variants yet.
It’s name is JN.1, and it’s riddling doctors across Iowa and the United States as it infects Americans with little resistance. The most dominant new variant of COVID-19 is a SARS-COV-2 strain and a descendant of omicron. JN.1 has a worrisome ability to infect those who have been vaccinated or previously infected.
How rapid is the spread of JN.1 today in America? In Early November 2023, the JN.1 variant was causing less than 5% of COVID cases in the U.S.
Today, in mid-January 2024, JN.1 accounts for more than 60% of U.S. COVID infections.
What is accelerating the widespread infection of JN.1 is the troublesome fact that fewer people are going to the hospital than they were in 2022. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported 29,000 COVID hospitalizations during Christmas Week 2023 compared with 39,000 during the same week in 2022.
‘It’s the Virus Putting People in the Hospital’
JN.1’s most devastating power? It’s helped contribute to an average of 1,400 weekly COVID deaths since Thanksgiving. And even mild cases can produce lasting complications inflicted by long COVID. The CDC notes levels of the virus in wastewater — one indicator of how infections are spreading — are “very high,” surpassing the levels seen this time last year.
“Of the three major viruses, it is still the virus putting people in the hospital most and taking their life,” CDC Director Mandy Cohen told The Washington Post earlier this week.
Also, fewer Americans are receiving updated COVID vaccinations. John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health reports currently only 8% of U.S. children and 19% of adults have received the latest COVID vaccine.
“A lot of people are missing out on protection from this virus,” JHU’s Aliza Rosen reports.
JN.1 Does Not Pose Additional Health Risks
The positive news: The CDC stresses JN.1 “does not appear to pose additional risks to public health beyond that of other recent variants.”
“Right now, there’s nothing that says JN.1 infection is any different from previous COVID variants in terms of disease severity or symptoms, but we’re paying close attention,” Andrew Pesokz, Ph.D., Professor and vice chair in the Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology at the John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, told The Today Show.
But Omicron, health officials stress, is likely not finished evolving into new complex strands of the virus.
“We cannot ignore the evidence” that Omicron may be evolving into a more severe form of itself, Dr. Shan-Lu Liu — professor and co-director of the Viruses and Emerging Pathogens Program at Ohio State University, and lead author on the first study — told Fortune.
The CDC expects JN.1 case rates to continue to spike through the winter. Wearing masks in public can help combat the virus, but vaccination, CBS News Healthwatch’s Julie Appleby stresses, remains our best defense against serious symptoms from all forms of the coronavirus and the flu.
Hand Sanitizers ‘Kill Many of Microorganisms That Make Us Sick’
The one proven COVID protection you can have with you everywhere: hand sanitizer. As KQED News’ Carly Severn notes, strong hand hygiene remains a “key measure in the fight to slow the spread of (COVID) across the country.”
And hand sanitizer can cleanse hands instantly of the sickly pathogens that so easily spread COVID variants like JN.1.
Hand sanitizers “play an important role in limiting the transmission of some pathogenic microorganisms,” Dr. John Schwartzberg, clinical professor emeritus of the Infectious Diseases and Vaccinology division at UC-Berkeley, told KQED News. “As long as your hands are free from visible dirt, hand sanitizers will kill many of the microorganisms that make us sick.”
And if you feel sick, take no chances: get tested and stay home. If you test positive, isolate for five days.
“It can make a big difference,” Marcus Plescia, chief medical officer of the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials, told CBS.
‘It’s Not Uncontrollable’
In this new COVID age, we can’t completely erase JN.1 from the air we breathe this winter, but we can bottle it up as best we can.
While JN.1 is further proof COVID-19 continues to evolve and become more complex with each new variant, we’re also getting wiser in how we can fight it.
For, in 2024, COVID can be contained.
“It’s not uncontrollable,” Cathy Bennett, president and CEO of the New Jersey Hospital Association, told The Washington Post.