“Two new variants are competing for dominance: NB.1.8.1 and XFG. We recently nicknamed NB.1.8.1 ‘Nimbus’, and it's pretty clear that XFG deserves a nickname as well. Keeping with the meteorological theme, XFG = ‘Stratus’.

Here's some more info about Nimbus and Stratus. 🧵

NB.1.8.1 is now here in the U.S.:

"Hong Kong authorities say that rates of COVID-19 in the city have climbed to the worst levels they have seen in at least a year, after a "significant increase" in reported emergency room visits and hospitalizations driven by COVID-19."

“Do you remember BA.3—the weakling cousin of BA.1 & BA.2 that seemed to take the worst from each & had weaker ACE2 binding than even the ancestral Wuhan Virus?

After 3 years, BA.3 is back.”

MASSIVE public health failure, and huge misinformation and propaganda win for both political parties.

“Half of Americans (49%) believe they'll never get COVID again, according to new polling from the Ipsos Consumer Tracker”