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The Highly Infectious FLiRT Variants Behind the Summer Covid Wave
The latest dominant Covid variants have stronger infectiousness than their predecessors and the ability to evade vaccine-induced antibodies.
In particular, Okinawa prefecture has witnessed the highest number of newly hospitalized patients since reporting began, and it’s possible that the virus is spreading in Japan at a rate that exceeds the country’s last two big waves, in September 2023 and January 2024. The FLiRT variants, including KP.3, also surpass the ability of earlier forms of the virus to evade immunity. When the G2P-Japan team examined past infections, breakthrough infections (those that follow being vaccinated), and responses to neutralizing antibodies induced by the updated XBB.1.5 Covid vaccine, they found that in all cases neutralizing activity against the FLiRTs was significantly weaker than that against existing epidemic variants.
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