In late 2021, on the heels of the deadly Delta wave of infections, a new variant came flying in out of left field—one so highly mutated, so drastically different that it changed the trajectory of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Dubbed Omicron by the World Health Organization, it contained more than 30 mutations that separated it from the original virus—alterations that gave it veritable wings. In short order, its lineage would become the only one of consequence, its progeny able to out-compete all other viral combinations evolution sent its way.
