The media are warning about the most recent COVID variant, Eris or EG.5. As the new strain starts to spread, the major news outlets are already telling Americans to cover up.
Eris is the name of the most recent version of COVID. It has been named after Eris, the Greek goddess of trouble and disagreement. The Omicron type is the parent of the new strain.
“EG.5 is a branch of XBB.1.9.2, which has the identical spike amino acid profile as XBB.1.5,” said the WHO.
According to the WHO, EG.5 represents a “variant of interest.”
NBC News said that the symptoms of EG.5 are “not expected to be very different from those of other omicron subvariants.” These symptoms “include a cough, fever, tiredness, muscle aches, and headaches.”
Scott Roberts, MD, an expert in infectious diseases at Yale Medicine, said that Eris is not too different compared to other recent strains, however, “there may be extra immune evasion because of a small distinction in genotype.”
Yale Medicine said, “However, EG.5 has a new change in its spike protein, which is the part that helps the virus get into the host cell. This change could help the virus avoid some of the immunity it gets from an infection or a vaccine.”
Roberts said, “I don’t know of any data that shows EG.5 causes COVID-19 cases to become worse than other variants.”
“Experts agree,” NBC News said, “that a lot of individuals probably already have a natural defense against serious disease.”
On February 17, 2023, the initial case of EG.5 was found.
The CDC said that EG.5 was the most common SARS-CoV-2 strain across the U.S. in the final two weeks of August. This strain caused 20.6% of COVID-19 cases within the U.S. FL 1.5.1, also known as Fornax, was the second most common type in that period, with 13.3% of cases.
The CDC said that COVID deaths have gone up by 8% while COVID cases have gone up by 14% in the last week.
Worldometer says that the average number of COVID cases over the past seven days was just over 27,000 as of August 18. A year ago, that number was over 768,000. On January 26, 2022, there were 3.4 million COVID-19 cases, which was the peak of the pandemic.
With the new Eris version going around the country, older media outlets are pushing for people to start wearing masks.
This is a clear attempt by the Biden White House to reboot covid restrictions. And as luck would have it, it is JUST in time for the election!
