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"We do keep seeing new mutations, new subvariants popping up. We call them the FLiRT viruses," said Dr. David Bronstein, an infectious diseases specialist at Kaiser Permanente in the Antelope Valley.
Bronstein said those FLiRT variants at the start of the year made up just 1% of our COVID cases. Today it's 28%. With the summer travel season right around the corner, there are concerns of a possible COVID surge.
Experts are now recommending that anyone who hasn't gotten last fall's vaccine to consider getting it now.
"Not a bad idea to get it now, especially knowing that we're going to be traveling, knowing that we have yet another subvariant that's on the rise that is more transmissible," Bronstein said. "It makes sense to protect yourself."
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If you're 65 or older, Bronstein suggests getting a second dose of that fall vaccine now, but don't conflate COVID with the flu. Bronstein said more people are still being hospitalized and dying because of COVID, and the best way to keep that from happening is to stay up to date with vaccinations.
"The more infections we've had, the more vaccine doses we've gotten, the better our immunity is and subsequent infections should hopefully be less severe for most of us," Bronstein said.
Experts said it'll take several weeks to see if the FLiRT variant will lead to a surge. The good news is there's no reason to believe the new variant will cause more severe illness than other recent strains.