A new COVID-19 variant spreading across the United States may cause an extremely painful sore throat—dubbed the "razor throat"—among its symptoms. The new "Nimbus" strain, also known as COVID-19 NB 1.

The newest concerning variant of covid-19 is rapidly advancing across the U.S. Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that NB.1.8.1 has started to supplant other circulating strains of the coronavirus.

The NB.1.8.1 COVID-19 variant was linked to a large surge of hospitalizations in parts of Asia earlier this year.

World-renowned infectious-disease epidemiologist Martin Kulldorff — who was fired from Harvard Medical School last year after refusing the COVID vaccine — just got a new gig. Kulldorff has been named a member of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices.

NB.1.8.1 — a new COVID-19 variant tied to a surge in China — now accounts for around 37% of cases in the U.S., according to variant proportion estimates from the CDC. Four notes:

The CDC says Taiwan's COVID-19 outbreak may have peaked and could wind down by late July as the number of medical visits starts to slow.

Since the first Covid-19 vaccines were authorized in December 2020, more than 672 million doses have been administered in the United States. For years, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has broadly recommended up-to-date vaccination,