The COVID variants dominating this fall mean ‘we’re still in the Omicron era’

(Credit: Hannah Beier, Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Omicron spawn BQ.1 and BQ.1.1 now lead U.S. COVID variants, dwarfing the previously dominant BA.5 two to one, the CDC reported Friday.

As Dr. Jake Lemieux, a Harvard Medical System assistant professor of medicine and infectious disease specialist at Massachusetts General Hospital, said Thursday, “The bottom line is we’re still in the Omicron era, or Omicron-plus era.”