Two new COVID variants are making headlines this week as cases continue to rise across the United States. The new strain known as EG.5, also known as Eris, is now the most dominant strain in the U.S., while at the same time the more contagious strain BA 2.86 is confirmed to have hit U.S. shores. Infectious diseases specialist Dr. Celine Gounder returns to the show to update us on these latest strains and tells us what to watch out for as we head into the fall. Plus, she tells Andy who should be getting boosters now and who can wait until the next round of updated boosters become available. Later in the show, Dr. Gounder discusses season 2 of her own podcast, “Epidemic,” which looks at how we eradicated smallpox and what parallels we can draw to the COVID pandemic.

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