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Wednesday, January 26, 2022

How the next COVID variant may emerge

The U.S. is currently in the grips of the latest COVID-19 variant, and many experts believe it won’t be the last before the end of the pandemic.

Omicron, designated as a variant of concern (VOC) by the World Health Organization, has all but pushed delta to the side, at least as far as sequencing efforts in the U.S. are suggesting. But viruses are constantly mutating, and a widespread virus — like the one that causes COVID-19 — has a better chance of gradually evolving from host to host and producing concerning variants.