What Sonoma County’s interim health officer says about new COVID-19 variant EG.5

There’s a new COVID-19 variant quickly gaining dominance in the United States. The new strain is not radically different from its parent, omicron, which has been around since late 2021.

The Press Democrat asked Dr. Karen Smith, Sonoma County’s interim health officer, if the new strain might pose a new challenge.

“EG.5 does seem to have finally out competed its closely related siblings,” she said via text message. “It appears to be about the same pathogenicity as recent Omicron variants, which is good news (not causing more serious illness).”

“Other good news is that this sub-variant is a descendant of the XBB strain. Vaccine manufacturers are currently formulating vaccine, for release this fall, to guard against XBB,” she said. “This is another indication that, at least for the next few years, we will likely be treating COVID similarly to influenza with annual vaccination against circulating variants.”

Read about Smith’s role at the county and how she’s happy to “keep the machine running” until a replacement is named here.