The Philippine Star October 23, 2022 | 12:00am Health experts say that the latest Omicron subvariant XBB and variant XBC have become so evasive to COVID vaccines that they might as well be new pathogens. Last Friday, the Department of Health announced that “definitely,” there is now local transmission of XBB and XBC, with 81 and 193 cases, respectively, detected so far. Epidemiologists note that XBC is a combination of the BA.2 sublineage of the Omicron and Delta variants. Both are highly transmissible. Delta caused more severe infections and a far higher number of deaths last year, although h…