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Could ‘stealth Omicron’ become ‘Pi’
The Omicron subvariant BA.2, nicknamed the ‘stealth Omicron,’ appears to be outpacing other substrains of Omicron in some regions of the world, reports Grady McGregor for Fortune, which is raising fears that the even more transmissible version of Omicron could spark larger covid-19 waves globally.
McGregor explains that the World Health Organization says that Omicron, which is also referred to as B.1.1.529, has three main substrains, BA.1, BA.2, and BA.3. As of Dec. 23, the WHO reported that over 99% of the cases it sequenced were BA.1. But now, the rise of BA.2 in Denmark and elsewhere suggests that BA.2 may outcompete BA.1.
You can read the full article here but needless to say, given this surge, some are already pointing to the potential need to get tthe Greek alphabet back out.
“I think the responsible thing to do is to relate to BA.2 as a completely different variant, outcompeting BA.1,” Shay Fleishon, a researcher affiliated with the Israeli government’s Central Virology Laboratory, wrote on Twitter. “Oh and if someone in the WHO is here—The letter Pi is still waiting. Just saying.“
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