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I know several people who have gotten Covid in the last month. They have not needed to go to the hospital, but they feel lousy for several days and stay at home during that time. Is the Covid variant that I hear about in the news more dangerous than the prior ones? Is there a booster for it (do they have them any more?)?
The Covid variant “XFG” has been increasing across the U.S.—this variant was been <1% of all the variants in March 2025, rose to ~6% by end of May, and ~14% by end of June. The CDC has not publicly posted an update to the Variant Tracker Dashboard (also known as Nowcast) since end of June because there are much fewer viral sequences being reported to CDC and there is very low precision with the estimated proportions. The CDC was previously able to publish these estimates every 2 weeks. I am hopeful that we will get a new CDC update soon.
As of end of June, the “NB.1.8.1” variant was the most dominating and rising Covid variant (43%) and the “LB.8.1” variant was the second most dominating Covid variant (31%) but declining. The “XFG” variant was the third most dominant variant (14%) and was also rising.
These Covid variants are all of the “Omicron” type and so I believe the vaccines are still highly valuable for protecting yourself.
