At the time, scientists argued that the second Omicron strain -- BA.2, with dozens of new gene mutations --was as genetically distinct from BA.1 as Alpha, Gamma and Delta had been from each other.

Variants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus are named after letters of the Greek alphabet and there is no evidence that the Omicron variant is a cryptic name that means “non-existing”, as claimed in a meme being ...

The naming of the new coronavirus variant Omicron is causing some confusion. Since May the World Health Organization has been using letters of the Greek alphabet, in order, to name coronavirus ...

Several social media posts have questioned the convention adopted by the World Health Organization (WHO) for naming new COVID-19 variants and speculated over whether it avoided letters of the Greek ...

Last year, the World Health Organization began assigning Greek letters to worrying new variants of the coronavirus. The organization started with alpha and swiftly worked its way through the Greek ...

Every few months for the first two years of the pandemic the public learned the name of a new coronavirus variant that had emerged and was more adept at infecting us or causing severe disease. Ten ...

Victoria Easton has previously received funding from the BBSRC, MRC, Wellcome Trust, Cancer Research UK and GCRF. She is affiliated with the University of Leeds and is a member of the Microbiology ...

You may have heard that there’s a new Omicron spinoff that’s quickly gaining ground in the United States. Maybe you wanted to ask your doctor about it or search for more information online – but what ...

Omicron, the 13th named variant of the coronavirus, seems to have a remarkable capacity to evolve new tricks. By Carl Zimmer Where is Pi? Last year, the World Health Organization began assigning Greek ...