We’re riding another Covid wave this summer, this time on the FLiRT variants. These variants comprise a family, including all variants that start with KP or JN, such as KP.2 and JN.1.7. They all descend from the JN.1 variant. They’re named for mutations called “FLiRT”s or “FLip”s, which refer to specific positions in the spike protein. As usual, people are asking what’s different about these variants, and what we need to do differently. However, at this point in the pandemic, the key might not be knowing the ins and outs of every single variant. But according to an infectious disease expert, there is another key marker we should be watching for — and it's far easier to track.
