Fall COVID surge begins in Europe—and US outlook already looks rough
Enlarge / Chairs for people who want to be vaccinated stand in the waiting room at the Mainz Vaccination Center. Currently, demand for COVID-19 booster vaccinations at vaccination centers and doctors' offices is low. (credit: Getty | picture alliance)
The dreaded winter COVID wave may already be upon us-and based on early signs, we may be in for a rough time.
As people head indoors amid cooling weather, several European countries are seeing upticks in COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations, and deaths. Though the situation in the US remains quiet for now, trends in the US tend to echo those in Europe.
So far, the rise in cases is driven by a familiar foe: the omicron subvariant BA.5, which has maintained a relatively long reign as the globally dominant variant. But a thick soup of omicron subvariants is simmering on the back burner, loaded with sublineages-notably from BA.2. and BA.5-converging on alarming sets of mutations. Some sublineages-such as BQ.1.1, an offshoot from BA.5, and XBB, derived from BA.2 strains-are the most immune evasive subvariants seen to date.