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. 2021 Dec;11(12):e685.
doi: 10.1002/ctm2.685.

The omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2: Understanding the known and living with unknowns

Nicholas E Ingraham  1 , David H Ingbar  1
Affiliations

The omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2: Understanding the known and living with unknowns

Nicholas E Ingraham et al. Clin Transl Med. 2021 Dec.

Abstract

The recently discovered Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 has rapidly burst into the public and scientific eye, being detected in more than 26 countries around the world. Given its more than 50 mutations, there is widespread concern about its public health impact, leading the World Health Organization to designate it a variant of concern. This Commentary provides a summary of current knowledge and unknowns about this viral variant as of December 2, 2021 and summarizes the key questions that need to be rapidly answered.

Keywords: COVID-19; Omicron; pandemic; variant; virus.

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Conflict of interest statement

All authors have substantially contributed to conducting the underlying research and drafting this manuscript. To the best of our knowledge, none of the authors have a conflict of interest, financial, or otherwise.

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