The latest addition to the omicron lineage has been making waves in Europe. Whether it will do the same in the U.S. depends on rates of vaccination and prior infection.
The best way to stop new variants from arising is to increase the proportion of vaccinated individuals while maintaining infection prevention measures like wearing masks and social distancing.
(Shutterstock)
Even with a variant like Omicron that may be more transmissible than earlier variants, vaccines remain the most effective tool for protection against COVID-19 and for ending the pandemic.
Vaccination, masking and social distancing are tried and true ways to protect against COVID-19 infection.
Marko Geber/DigitalVision via Getty Images
New variants of the COVID-19 virus may be more contagious and cause more severe disease than the original. A pediatrician and infectious disease specialist explains why.
A COVID-19 patient in an ICU unit in a hospital in Capetown, South Africa, in December 2020. A variant emerged in South Africa that has since spread to other parts of the world. Other new variants could emerge elsewhere.
Rodger Bosch/AFP via Getty Images
As the US vaccinates millions more people each day, the novel coronavirus works to survive. It does this by mutating. So far, several variants are worrisome. A virologist explains what they are.