Dr. Ashish Jha says the U.S.
is seeing typically two COVID waves a year. Justin Sullivan/Getty Images hide caption As much as we would all love to ignore COVID, a new set of variants that scientists call “FLiRT” is here to remind us that the virus is still with us. The good news: as of last Friday, the CDC says that the amount of respiratory illness in the U.
S. is low. The not-so-great news: the U.
S. has often flirted with summer COVID waves because of travel and air-conditioned gatherings. Dr.
Ashish Jha, the dean of the Brown University School of Public Health and former White House COVID-19 response coordinator, returned to All Things Considered to speak with host Ailsa Chang about what the new variants could bring. This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity. Ailsa Chang: So how concerned would you say scientists are about whether these FLiRT variants come with increased transmissibility or increased disease severity, compared to previous variants? Ashish Jha: We're seeing exactly what we have expected: The virus continues to evolve to try to escape the wall of immunity we have built up through vaccines and infections.
Is this more transmissible? It is. That's why it has become more dominant. But the really important question is, is it going to get people to become more sick than previous versions? And all the evidence right now we have is no.
If you have been vaccinated, or you had previous infections – or you’re one of the majority of Americans.
