Another NEW covid variant is currently rapidly gaining a foothold. Known officially as XFG—or informally as “Stratus”—it has been declared a “variant under monitoring” by the World Health Organization (WHO), and is expected to circulate alongside the now dominant Nimbus variant throughout the northern hemisphere summer. Stratus is a combination of the LF.7 and LP.8.1.2 lineages of the virus, and when comparing Stratus to the previously dominant JN1 variant, “distinct mutational profiles in the spike protein can be identified,” the WHO has said. “Spike mutations at amino acids 478 and 487 enhance antibody avoidance”—meaning, in other words, the variant may be more adept at evading our immune defenses. Stratus has been dominant in India throughout the spring, and has now started to spread at large across the world.