The four biggest questions surrounding Omicron are: is it more transmissible, is it more immune evading, does it cause different disease and do we need to do anything different to stop it. We do not have definitive answers to most of these questions, as we are still learning about the variant; however, several studies have recently been published as non-peer-reviewed pre-prints that may help to provide some answers.
The rapid spread of Omicron and the associated spike in COVID-19 cases in many countries suggests that the variant may be more transmissible. This concept is supported by pre-prints that show that Omicron is more infectious and has a shorter incubation period (the time between infection and the start of being contagious) than the Delta variant. However, the rapid rise in Omicron cases may also be due to its ability to evade the protection of vaccine- or infectioninduced immunity.
This story is from the January 2022 edition of BBC Science Focus.
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This story is from the January 2022 edition of BBC Science Focus.
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