Scientists struggle to understand the competition between omicron and delta
As the pandemic’s third year dawns, Americans are feeling fatigued and confused. And it’s all omicron’s fault.
Even scientists are deeply uncertain about how quickly or even whether the new variant will eclipse delta, as well as who is likely to fall ill with which variant and how sick those people will become.
“It does feel like omicron has changed everything we thought we knew” about the virus, said Dr. Megan Ranney, associate dean of Brown University’s School of Public Health. “This feels like a strange turning point, potentially, in the pandemic.”
Clues about the pandemic’s next phase have begun to emerge, but they have been conflicting and prone to error. Torrents of new data and statistics tumble out daily, but what they mean isn’t always clear. Some
