In short:

Australia has recorded its first cases of the XEC COVID-19 variant that has been spreading in Europe this year.

The mutation is a "recombinant" variant that is a mix of two previous Omicron subvariants called KS 1.1 and KP 3.3.

What's next?

An infectious disease expert says the strain has the hallmarks of something that could lead to a "summer wave" of infections.

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 weeks ago

Are we meant to get annual boosters forever?

Realistically the best case scenario is it mellows out to something like the flu that kills a few hundred people a year. So yes, like the flu you should be getting vaccinated.

We don't have a good grasp over what repeat viral exposure does though, SARS-2 appears to cause cumulative heart and brain damage, someone mitigated by vaccination, so the likely outcome is probably worse than the flu.

I keep an eye on infection rates and get more wary about indoor spaces when it's rising again. I live on the periphery of the city though which makes it easier to limit exposure. Urbanites can probably just embrace early onset dementia. Welcome to the world eating animals hath wrought, worse awaits us :)