How Omicron’s Subvariants Have Turbo-Charged Covid: QuickTake

Since emerging in late 2021, the highly transmissible omicron strain of SARS-CoV-2 has splintered into a dazzling arrayof subvariants that are now driving fresh waves of Covid-19 cases around the world. The proliferation of such a diversity of variants is unprecedented, and pits numerous hyper-mutated iterations against each other in a race for global dominance. That’s turbo-charged Covid, making it one of the fastest-spreading diseases known to humanity, and further challenging pandemic-mitigation efforts in a global population already weary of frequent booster shots, testing and masking.

1. How is omicron evolving?

Omicron was first identified in southern Africa ...