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Overall, it is difficult to attribute certain symptoms to variants when there are more than a dozen circulating at a time and testing remains relatively low compared to earlier stages of the pandemic, said Dr. T. Ryan Gregory, an evolutionary and genome biologist at the University of Guelph in Canada.

Dr. T. Ryan Gregory, an evolutionary and genome biologist at the University of Guelph in Canada, explained to Salon that scientists have been referring to clans of variants “to capture the idea that evolving lineages is what matters, rather than any individual variant per se.”

Dr. T. Ryan Gregory, an evolutionary and genome biologist at the University of Guelph in Canada, told Salon “concurrent infections,” like having the flu and COVID-19, are worse for a person’s immune system than just having one infection.

Although JN.1 has characteristics that suggest it could become a dominant strain, the landscape of COVID-19 variants has transformed since last summer when one variant could cause a new wave of cases, said Dr. T. Ryan Gregory, an evolutionary and genome biologist at the University of Guelph in Canada.

Just six overall cases were reported worldwide as of Friday, but the fact that the variant, nicknamed "Pirola," has already spread across multiple continents is "concerning," said Dr. T. Ryan Gregory, an evolutionary and genome biologist at the University of Guelph in Canada.