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Omicron’s lasting mysteries: four questions scientists are racing to answer

The fast-moving variant poses new puzzles in viral transmission, severity and evolution.
  1. Amber Dance

    1. Amber Dance is a science journalist in Los Angeles, California.

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A woman has her nose swabbed as part of a test for COVID-10 infection in Brazil

Omicron infects the cells of the nose, throat and lungs differently from former variants. Credit: Lucas Landau/Reuters/Alamy

Infection rates with the Omicron variant of the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 are plummeting in many countries around the world. But scientists are still struggling to understand how it spread so rapidly and what it might do next, especially because the subvariant known as BA.2 is rising in some places.

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Nature 603, 22-24 (2022)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-022-00428-5

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