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Coronavirus: The corona virus is not over yet. Every day it is seen in a new form somewhere or the other. The news of its variant FLiRT is not even old yet that its new variant Fluq (FLuQE Covid variant) has arrived in Australia. The SARS-CoV-2 virus responsible for corona keeps mutating and changing into new variants. Because of this, when our immune system adapts to a variant, the latest variant emerges as a challenge.
The Flirt subvariant is a descendant of the Omicron variant JN.1 which includes KP.1.1, KP.2 and JN.1.7. KP.2 contributed significantly to Covid infections in Australia and elsewhere around May. Fluke (KP.3) is said to be a descendant of Flirt. This means it has inherited the same mutations as the Flirt variant. It is still early days for Fluke and not much research has been done on it yet. But it appears we now have another immune-defying virus that is also well adapted to infecting our cells. This is why Fluke is becoming dominant in many countries.
The tug of war between our immune system and SARS-CoV-2 evolution continues. The issue we are dealing with right now is that vaccines do not adequately protect against infection or suppress transmission of the virus. Although they are very good at preventing severe disease, the virus still infects many people.
Lots of infections mean more opportunities for the virus to evolve, as well as a burden on people and the health service. The next generation of vaccines and treatments should boost immunity in the upper respiratory tract (nose and throat) to reduce infection and transmission. This is where the infection starts. There are immune-stimulating nasal sprays and nasal vaccines for this purpose.