2 new wildly contagious variants keeping Southern California COVID cases high
The Orange County Register, July 7, 2022
2 new wildly contagious variants keeping Southern California COVID cases high
“New variants come along and they outcompete the old variants,” said Andrew Noymer, [associate professor of public health], an epidemiologist at UC Irvine. He noted that the same thing happens with influenza, but it’s happening much faster with COVID-19, “just one wave after another after another of new variants.” … “Looking at the history of viral infection, people like to point out that many viruses start out with a huge explosion of disease, then gradually tone down so they’re just in the background, part of the normal cycle, like the common cold,” said Michael Buchmeier, [professor emeritus], a virologist and immunologist who just retired from UC Irvine. “We may be seeing that right now. We may be at the point it has evolved to not be as dangerous.”