Just because we're tired of hearing about it doesn't mean it's gone, and this summer's COVID bump, brought to you, in part, by the FLiRTY variants, is making some people pretty sick.
So, are the latest variants much worse than the previous ones?
KNX News' Emily Valdez spoke with Dr. David Baron, who said the variability in severity is probably not due to variant strength - it's likely our fault!
"I don't think it's been proven that [the current variants are] any worse than the ones we've been dealing with so far," the doctor said. Apparently, we've just gotten broadly worse about protecting ourselves.
Dr. Baron is a concierge physician with Primary Caring of Malibu, and he said, "I think you'll see that people who have been vaccinated within the past 4 to 6 months are going to get milder cases of the illness. And that's what we would predict in vaccinated individuals."
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If you haven't had COVID in a while, your body doesn't remember how to deal with it, "And there really is good protection with the vaccine," he said.
Baron said you can still get the bivalent vaccine; an updated one is expected in October. If you are at high risk, you can always get Paxlovid; it should reduce or at least shorten the duration of your symptoms, he said.
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