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Chise
@sailorrooscout.bsky.social
Senior Scientist | Vaccine Research & Development | NIH | NIAID | VRC | 🧬🧫🦠🔬💉🥼🥽 | 🏳️‍🌈 | @coralchimera.bsky.social 💍
23k followers293 following9.5k posts
Csailorrooscout.bsky.social

The FDA has approved and authorized UPDATED mRNA COVID-19 Vaccines. Novavax is still pending. The shots are formulated to target the "FLiRT" variants. KP.3 was identified this spring and has become the top variant since. This variant is part of the “FLiRT” family

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KSkezzcat.bsky.social

My doc has recommended getting the Novavax. Hopefully that's not too far down the line.

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Csailorrooscout.bsky.social

of variants. The variant JN.1 previously emerged as the most common version of COVID-19. These are to be AVAILABLE BEGINNING IN THE COMING DAYS. • www.fda.gov/news-events/...

What are these “FLiRT variants”?

This is the term being used to describe a whole family of different variants- including KP.2, KP.3, JN.1.7, and any other variants starting with KP or JN- that appear to have independently picked up the same set of mutations. This is called convergent evolution. They are all descendants of the JN.1 variant (Omicron) that has been dominant in the U.S. for the past several months.

The particular mutations that people refer to as “FLiRT”s or “FLip”s refer to specific positions in the spike protein- in this case, positions 456, 346, and 572.

Viruses like SARS-CoV-2 mutate frequently, and when they mutate to evade recognition by antibodies, this often weakens their ability to bind to the cells they want to infect. We then see mutations appear that improve that binding ability. This is a cycle we have seen many times with SARS-CoV-2. The fact that these different variants are picking up the same mutations tells virologists that this combination of mutation
1
CDbigladydragon.bsky.social

How come they stopped using Greek letters to identify the versions

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C
Chise
@sailorrooscout.bsky.social
Senior Scientist | Vaccine Research & Development | NIH | NIAID | VRC | 🧬🧫🦠🔬💉🥼🥽 | 🏳️‍🌈 | @coralchimera.bsky.social 💍
23k followers293 following9.5k posts