{"id":147171,"date":"2025-08-15T06:59:12","date_gmt":"2025-08-15T06:59:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/147171\/"},"modified":"2025-08-15T06:59:12","modified_gmt":"2025-08-15T06:59:12","slug":"what-to-know-about-summer-colds-and-the-covid-19-variant-named-stratus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/147171\/","title":{"rendered":"What to know about summer colds and the COVID-19 variant named stratus"},"content":{"rendered":"

Summer heat, outdoor fun … and cold and flu symptoms<\/a>?<\/p>\n

The three may not go together in many people\u2019s minds: partly owing to common myths about germs and partly because many viruses really do have lower activity levels in the summer. <\/p>\n

But it is possible to get the sniffles \u2014 or worse \u2014 in the summer. Federal data released Friday<\/a>, for example, shows COVID-19 is trending up in most states, with emergency department visits up among people of all ages. <\/p>\n

Here\u2019s what to know about summer viruses.<\/p>\n

How much are colds and flu circulating right now?<\/p>\n

The number of people seeking medical care for three key illnesses \u2014 COVID-19, flu and respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV \u2014 is currently very low, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.<\/p>\n

Flu is trending down and RSV has been steady. But COVID-19 is trending up in most U.S. states. Wastewater data from around the country estimates \u201cmoderate\u201d COVID-19 activity.<\/p>\n

CDC wastewater also shows the XFG variant \u2014 nicknamed stratus \u2014 is most common in the U.S. Stratus can cause a \u201crazor blade\u201d sore throat<\/a> and is considered a \u201cvariant under monitoring\u201d by the World Health Organization. The WHO said the variant is only marginally better at evading people\u2019s immune systems and vaccines still work against it.<\/p>\n

The expectation is that COVID-19 will eventually settle into a winter seasonal pattern like other coronaviruses, but the past few years have brought a late summer surge, said Dr. Dean Blumberg, chief of pediatric infectious diseases at University of California Davis Children\u2019s Hospital.<\/p>\n

Other viruses circulating this time of year include the one that causes \u201chand, foot and mouth\u201d disease \u2014 which has symptoms similar to a cold, plus sores and rashes \u2014 and norovirus<\/a>, sometimes called the stomach flu.<\/p>\n

Do viruses spread less in the summer?<\/p>\n

Many viruses circulate seasonally, picking up as the weather cools in the fall and winter. So it\u2019s true that fewer people get stuffy noses and coughs in the summer \u2014 but cold weather itself does not cause colds.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not just about seasonality. The other factor is our behavior, experts say. Nice weather means people are opening windows and gathering outside where it\u2019s harder for germs to spread.<\/p>\n

But respiratory viruses are still around. When the weather gets too hot and everyone heads inside for the air conditioning, doctors say they start seeing more sickness. In places where it gets really hot for a long time, summer can be cold season in its own right.<\/p>\n

\u201cI grew up on the East Coast and everybody gets sick in the winter,\u201d said Dr. Frank LoVecchio, an emergency room doctor and Arizona State University researcher. \u201cA lot of people get sick in the summer here. Why is that? Because you spend more time indoors.\u201d<\/p>\n

With stratus spreading, should you get another COVID-19 booster?<\/p>\n

For people who are otherwise healthy, timing is a key consideration to getting any vaccine. You want to get it a few weeks before that big trip or wedding, if that\u2019s the reason for getting boosted, doctors say. But, for most people, it may be worth waiting until the fall in anticipation of winter cases of COVID-19 really tick up.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou want to be fully protected at the time that it\u2019s most important for you,\u201d said Dr. Costi Sifri, of the University of Virginia Health System. <\/p>\n

People at higher risk of complications should always talk with their doctor about what is best for them, Sifri added. Older adults and those with weak immune systems may need more boosters than others, he said.<\/p>\n

Are more younger kids getting sick with COVID-19?<\/p>\n

Last month, the CDC noted emergency room visits among children younger than 4 were rising. That makes sense, Blumberg said, because many young kids are getting it for the first time or are unvaccinated.<\/p>\n

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said in May<\/a> that the shots would no longer be recommended for healthy kids, a decision that health experts have said lacks scientific basis. The American Academy of Pediatrics still endorses COVID-19 shots<\/a> for children older than 6 months.<\/p>\n

How else can I lower my risk?<\/p>\n

The same things that help prevent colds, flu and COVID any other time of the year work in the summer, doctors say.<\/p>\n

Spend time outside when you can, wash your hands, wear a mask. And if you\u2019re sick, stay home.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute\u2019s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Summer heat, outdoor fun … and cold and flu symptoms? The three may not go together in many…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":113700,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[3881,3384,17993,71610,7824,4140,71611,47180,210,12229,67,132,68,26413],"class_list":{"0":"post-147171","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health","8":"tag-ap-top-news","9":"tag-be-well","10":"tag-centers-for-disease-control-and-prevention","11":"tag-common-cold","12":"tag-coronavirus","13":"tag-covid-19","14":"tag-dean-blumberg","15":"tag-flu","16":"tag-health","17":"tag-jwd-evergreen","18":"tag-united-states","19":"tag-unitedstates","20":"tag-us","21":"tag-world-health-organization"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115031491559247158","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147171","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=147171"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147171\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/113700"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=147171"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=147171"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=147171"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}