That's because they are designed to capture a wide variety of mutations to the N protein, which differs from the spike protein, the part of the virus used to enter our cells. Even though the virus is constantly mutating, even the take-home COVID tests will still work typically. It's simple to clear up any confusion about whether it's COVID or allergies: Take a test. The delta strain, for example, was more likely to infect the lower respiratory tract, while omicron primarily affects the upper respiratory tract, generally causing less damage to the lungs. They may also allow the virus to better infect different areas of the body. While the string of numbers and letters in a variants name may seem confusing - which is why the nicknames exist - they can represent significant differences between virus strains that manifest as entirely different symptoms. Meanwhile, Arcturus has jumped to around 12.5 percent of cases, a rise from just 1 percent at the end of March. For most of this year, Americans have been battling against Kraken (XBB.1.5), but it is slowly being superseded by its offspring, such as Arcturus (XBB.1.16).Īccording to CDC data, Kraken made up roughly 67 percent of cases in the week ending May 6, a decline from its peak of 84 percent in April. All of them right now are the children or grandchildren of the omicron variant that emerged in late 2021. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) keep a weekly tally estimating the total percentage of virus strains currently circulating. Unfortunately, unlike allergies or the flu, there is nothing "mild" about COVID, not even the most recent variants, whose infections can still cause brain damage and long COVID.Īre your allergies worse than usual? You're not alone That means many people have COVID, thinking it's just related to the weird, exceptionally bad allergy season. And the latest batch of variants that are spreading in North America appear to have symptoms very similar to allergies, especially conjunctivitis or pink eye. Meanwhile, as SARS-CoV-2 mutates, its symptoms often manifest differently. But it is also true that viruses naturally mutate, often evolving new strategies to evade our defenses. It's true that infections and death are trending downward and we have better tools than ever to control COVID. Still, the disease ranks fourth among the leading causes of death in the U.S., meaning it is still killing a very high number of Americans. In the U.S., 1,100 people died from COVID the week ending May 3, so even though recent stats suggest COVID deaths dropped in 2022. Despite both the White House and the World Health Organization recently declaring an end to the public health emergencies characterizing the last three years of the pandemic, the pathogen responsible for COVID continues to circulate, still daily infecting large numbers of people, sometimes hospitalizing and killing them or giving them long-lasting symptoms. Nothing in life is certain except death, taxes and that the SARS-CoV-2 virus will keep mutating.
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