How bad is Omicron? What scientists know so far

COVID researchers are working at breakneck speed to learn about the variant’s transmissibility, severity and ability to evade vaccines.
By
  1. Ewen Callaway
  2. Heidi Ledford
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Barely a week has elapsed since scientists in Botswana and South Africa alerted the world to a fast-spreading SARS-CoV-2 variant now known as Omicron. Researchers worldwide are racing to understand the threat that the variant — now confirmed in more than 20 countries — poses to the world. Yet it might take scientists weeks to paint a more complete picture of Omicron, and to gain an understanding of its transmissibility and severity, as well as its potential to evade vaccines and cause reinfections.

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Nature 600, 197-199 (2021)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-021-03614-z

Updates & Corrections

  • Correction 07 December 2021: An earlier version of this story misspelt Richard Lessells’ name.

References

  1. Pulliam, J. R. C. et al. Preprint at medRxiv https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.11.11.21266068 (2021).

  2. Schmidt, F. et al. Nature https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-021-04005-0 (2021).

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