That means like other variations of COVID, the symptoms are similar: The new vaccines are monovalent, or target one variant. This shot targets the KP.2, but since XEC has similarities between KP.2 and XEC, experts believe that the vaccine should work.

A new COVID variant is raising questions and capturing the attention of researchers heading into the fall and winter season. It's called the XEC variant.

As the Covid-19 pandemic continues to evolve, a new variant known as the Covid XEC variant is starting to spread rapidly across Europe, North America, and parts of Asia. First identified in Germany in June,