Although COVID-19 rates are overall still near historic lows after about seven months of decline, an increase in cases observed in recent summer months is a cause for concern for many who anticipate another spike in the fall when schools start back up.
Ever since the COVID-19 pandemic began, there have been a long list of variants with confusing, jumbled names — from BA.5 to BQ.1 to XBB — which can feel like a bit of an alphabet soup. One of the country's prominent vaccine researchers, Dr. Peter Hotez, coined the term "Scrabble variants" to describe the ever-growing list of COVID mutations. In July, yet another was added to the list of variants to keep track of: EG.5, a descendent of the omicron strain that first emerged in November 2021. We've been dealing with omicron's children ever since.
