Got a summer cold? It could be COVID. Here's why this virus isn't seasonal quite yet

While SARS-CoV-2 is now a familiar threat, the virus isn’t neatly seasonal. It still circulates year-round, humming in the background. And for the fifth year in a row, some scientists are bracing for the possibility of a small summer wave.

Got a summer cold? It could be COVID. Here's why this virus isn't seasonal quite yet
Transmission electron micrograph of a SARS-CoV-2 virus particle isolated from a patient sample and cultivated in cell culture. The prominent projections (red) seen on the outside of the virus particle (blue) are spike proteins. This fringe of proteins enables the virus to attach to and infect host cells and then replicate. Image captured at the NIAID Integrated Research Facility (IRF) in Fort Detrick, Maryland. Credit: NIAID

While SARS-CoV-2 is now a familiar threat, the virus isn’t neatly seasonal. It still circulates year-round, humming in the background. And for the fifth year in a row, some scientists are bracing for the possibility of a small summer wave.