Amid another surge in COVID-19 in the Houston area and Texas in general, health experts tell us that the latest version of it called FLiRT is extremely tranmissible and that a new vaccine is on the way to if not save the day, at least make the symptoms not as harsh if you get it.
As for the new vaccine? Well that’s anyone’s guess, ranging anywhere from two weeks to three months. Then the question becomes: do you wait for the new COVID fighter or get another booster of the present vaccine which means you’ll have to wait a while after that before you can take the new one.
Dr. Peter Hotez, co-director of the Texas Children’s Hospital Center for Vaccine Development and dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine, predicts that the new vaccine will be ready “certainly by the end of August,” at the same time saying he hopes it would be available even sooner.
Hotez had his hopes up last spring with the level of cases at their lowest point. He traveled without wearing a mask, but he wore one in the airport and on the plane during a recent trip to Colorado. “When you’re in crowded situations you definitely want to have a good tight fitting mask.
“We’ve been seeing surges every summer so it’s not too unexpected. The question is how much of a surge it will be,” he said..
The latest variant is a variant on JN.1 the variant that infected many people earlier in the year. The difference involves changes in two amino acids,and falls under the so-called FLiRT title.
“Unfortunately we’re in a new surge in Texas and some other parts of the country. And we don’t have all the information because nationally we’re not measuring COVID hospitalization currently,. We’re not going to be collecting hospitalization data until October.
“But we are seeing a pretty steep increase in wastewater numbers which has been a reliable indicator in the past that we are in a surge,” Hotez said.
“The annual immunization that became available last fall has some cross protection against it and certain risk groups because of age or underlying factors were able to get a booster last spring but if you haven’t gotten that booster, if you haven’t gotten that annual immunization, you will have some risk,”
There is not only the risk of long COVID but of damage to a person’s heart, he said. And whether the summer surge lasts or not, Hotez predicted there would be another surge in the fall and winter.
At home tests are good indicators the COVID and especially useful if they catch it early in its run so people can get Paxlovid to help alleviate the severity of they symptoms. But Paxlovid doesn’t work later on if someone has COVID and is already really sick. Hotez thinks it’s unfortunate that the at home testing kits are no longer free since that probably means people are skipping the test.
“The problem with people not doing as much home testing is you can’t make an informed decision about whether to take Paxlovid. So I think that’s a big mistake.”
This article appears in Jan 1 – Dec 31, 2024.
