Scientist Who First Detected Omicron Variant Concerned by Unusual Speed of Mutations

Travelers receive COVID-19 tests at a pre-departure testing facility, as countries react to the new Omicron variant, outside the international terminal at Sydney Airport in Australia, on Nov. 29, 2021. Loren Elliott/Reuters

The scientist who first detected the new strain of the Omicron coronavirus variant said on Dec. 3 that he’s concerned about how quickly it appears to have accumulated its unusual pattern of mutations.

Dr. Sikhulile Moyo, a director for the Botswana Harvard HIV Reference Laboratory and a research fellow at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, said the speed at which Omicron is mutating also raises further questions about how it evolved and just how transmissible it may be.