The COVID-19 virus, as measured by the increase both in hospitalizations and in deaths of COVID patients, has resurged in the United States over the last eight weeks. (Measurement by the amount of reported infections is ineffective, as reportage is so spotty.) The latest vaccines are likely to be effective against the top two variants, but there’s a nasty variant lurking in the wings.
From July 8 through Aug. 19, hospitalizations have more than doubled, with increases in the recent few weeks of around 20% per week. For Aug. 13-19, the last week with available figures, hospitalizations were at over 15,000 for the week. Deaths were very low at the beginning of July, but have also been climbing recently to close to 20% per week.
The two leading variants for the two-week period ending Aug. 19, according to nationwide genomic sampling, are EG.5 ("Eris") at 20.6% and FL.1.5.1 ("Fornax") at 13.3% of all known variants. Neither one has been shown so far to be more virulent than previous strains. They simply are spreading somewhat faster than other present variants. The two are supposedly close cousins to the XBB family of variants, which is targetted by the latest round of vaccines.
