LOS ANGELES (KABC) — The days of school closures and statewide lockdowns may be years behind us, but the threat of COVID-19 still lurks in the shadows. Health officials are now worried that new variants could ruin a respite from the tough fight against the pandemic.
“We're constantly seeing new mutations and new subvariants emerge, and we're calling them FLiRT viruses,” said Dr. David Bronstein, an infectious disease specialist at Kaiser Permanente in the Antelope Valley. “There is,” he said.
Bronstein said that at the beginning of the year, these FLiRT variants accounted for just 1% of coronavirus cases. Today it is 28%. The summer travel season is just around the corner, and there are concerns about the possibility of a spike in coronavirus infections.
Experts are now recommending that people who didn't get vaccinated last fall consider getting one now.
“It's not a bad idea to get it now, especially considering you're going to be traveling and we know that other, more transmissible variants are on the rise,” Bronstein said. Bada,” he said. “Of course you have to protect yourself.”
Bronstein recommends people 65 and older get their second vaccination this fall, but don't confuse the coronavirus with the flu. Bronstein said more people are still being hospitalized and dying from COVID-19, and the best way to prevent that is to keep vaccinations up to date.
“The more people have had previous infections and the more vaccines they have administered, the better their immunity will be and subsequent infections should be milder for most people,” Bronstein said. .
Experts said it will take several weeks to see if the FLiRT variant leads to a surge. The good news is there is no reason to believe that this new variant causes more severe disease than other recent strains.
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