{"id":12716,"date":"2025-07-08T18:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-07-08T22:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cov19longhaulfoundation.org\/?p=12716"},"modified":"2025-07-06T10:12:21","modified_gmt":"2025-07-06T14:12:21","slug":"21-states-across-us-now-reporting-covid-razor-throat-variant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cov19longhaulfoundation.org\/?p=12716","title":{"rendered":"21 States Across US Now Reporting COVID ‘Razor Throat’ Variant"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Authored by Jack Phillips via The Epoch Times<\/a>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

At least 21 states are reporting a COVID-19 variant that spread across China earlier this year, according to newly updated data provided by a private company.<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A map released by the Global Initiative on Sharing All Influenza Data (GISAID) shows<\/a> that 21 states in the United States are reporting COVID-19 variant NB.1.8.1 as of Thursday afternoon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The most recent estimate<\/a> from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggests that between June 8 and June 21, the NB.1.8.1 variant now makes up 43 percent of COVID-19 cases in the United States, making it now the dominant strain.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Separately, the CDC says<\/a> that across the United States, COVID-19 levels are \u201ccurrently very low.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Outside the United States, Chinese health officials said in June that the NB.1.8.1 was driving a wave of infections across the country. And Chinese doctors at Peking University last month predicted<\/a> a peak of nationwide COVID-19 cases in July, also stating that it may become the next dominant global strain, with symptoms including a sharp sore throat, fever, runny nose, vomiting, and diarrhea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Due to the Chinese Communist Party\u2019s history of covering up information and publishing unreliable data, including data on COVID-19 infections and deaths, information provided by local doctors and health workers could provide more context about the situation on the ground in China.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The World Health Organization (WHO) has designated NB.1.8.1 as a \u201cvariant under monitoring\u201d and considers the public health risk low at the global level. Current vaccines are expected to remain effective.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Previously, WHO said some western Pacific countries have reported increases in COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations, but there\u2019s nothing so far to suggest that the disease associated with the new variant is more severe than other variants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

NB.1.8.1 has been dubbed the \u201crazor throat\u201d or \u201crazor blade throat\u201d variant in media reports, including in India, the UK, China, and by The Associated Press. Several Chinese doctors told<\/a> The Epoch Times in May that their patients had reported the symptom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Separately, the WHO announced<\/a> that the XFG strain is now a \u201cvariant under monitoring\u201d in a report released in late June. XFG is estimated<\/a> to make up around 14 percent of cases in the United States, and GISAID isn\u2019t tracking the variant so far.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The spread of the variant also comes as a recent poll released on June 30 suggested that<\/a> 70 percent of Americans would still attempt to test themselves for COVID-19 if they believe they contracted it. The survey was carried out in 2024 but was released earlier this week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The survey, from UMass Chan Medical School and released through the JAMA Network Open journal, found that 70 percent of Americans indicated they would test if they suspected a COVID-19 infection, more than five years after the virus spread across the United States.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEarly identification of infection enables prompt care and steps to reduce spread,\u201d the researchers wrote. \u201cTimely initiation of oral antiviral medications is associated with lower hospitalizations, deaths, and long-COVID incidence among adults at high risk<\/strong>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In May, U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced that COVID-19 vaccines are no longer recommended for healthy children and pregnant women, while the Food and Drug Administration on June 25 expanded existing warnings on the two leading COVID-19 vaccines regarding two forms of heart inflammation. The warnings refer to Myocarditis, which is inflammation of the heart muscle, and pericarditis, the inflammation of a sac that lines the heart.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Authored by Jack Phillips via The Epoch Times\u00a0 At least 21 states are reporting a COVID-19 variant that spread across China earlier this year, according to newly updated data provided […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":12723,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1273,149,350,1233,1272,1274],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12716","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-china","category-epidemiology","category-myocarditis","category-nb-1-8-1","category-razor-throat","category-xfg"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cov19longhaulfoundation.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12716","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cov19longhaulfoundation.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cov19longhaulfoundation.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cov19longhaulfoundation.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cov19longhaulfoundation.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12716"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cov19longhaulfoundation.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12716\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12717,"href":"https:\/\/cov19longhaulfoundation.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12716\/revisions\/12717"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cov19longhaulfoundation.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12723"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cov19longhaulfoundation.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12716"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cov19longhaulfoundation.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12716"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cov19longhaulfoundation.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12716"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}