New COVID Variant: What You Need To Know

What is the difference between the KP.3 variant and other COVID variants?  Veuer's Elizabeth Keatinge has more.

Transcript

00:00It's the KP.3 variant. The CDC estimates from May 26 through June 8, this variant accounts

00:08for 25% of COVID cases. Nicknamed the flirt strain due to mutations in their spike protein,

00:16KP.3 and KP.2 are very similar. When you look at KP.2 and KP.3, they're nearly identical

00:25to each other with really one difference between the two of them. CDC chief lab official

00:31Natalie Thornburg said at an FDA meeting, the difference is smaller than previous jumps

00:36in the virus. Some FDA data suggests KP.3's mutations might be better at evading immunity.

00:43KP.3 may also be more infectious due to binding affinity.