The World Health Organization’s (WHO) chief scientist says the new Omicron COVID-19 variant could displace the Delta variant, which emerged earlier this year as the dominant strain, while researchers recently announced that Omicron may have picked up genetic material from the common cold.
Soumya Swaminathan said it’s not yet clear whether Omicron is milder than other CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus variants, while casting doubt on whether it emerged in southern Africa.
