Why South Africa Sounded the Alarm Over Omicron

On Friday, the World Health Organization labeled a new variant of the coronavirus, called Omicron, as a variant of concern. WSJ’s Gabriele Steinhauser explains how scientists in South Africa noticed it so quickly, and what’s known about Omicron so far.

WHO: Today, we are announcing B11529 as a variant of concern, named Omicron.

Ryan Knutson: The WHO made an announcement.

WHO: So Omicron, B11529, is named as a variant of concern because it has some concerning properties. This variant has a large number of mutations, and some of these mutations have some worrying characteristics. Right now …

Ryan Knutson: One reason the WHO decided to call Omicron a variant of concern, the highest marker of potential danger, was because a lot of the people getting sick from Omicron in South Africa already had COVID.

Gabrielle Steinhauser: So, that was sort of the first early evidence that this new variant seems to be able to somehow escape some of the antibodies, at least of previous infection. Again, this is really, really early data, but with just the sheer number of mutations, it just convinced these experts that they needed to tell the world that this is potentially really dangerous.

Ryan Knutson: But, so it seemed like all of this happened very quickly. Did it just feel fast, or was this actually fast in how this variant was identified and then labeled a variant of concern?

Gabrielle Steinhauser: It felt really fast, and it was really fast. We went from Tuesday, scientists in several countries around the world being like, “Oh, whoa, whoa, what is this?” To Friday, “This is a variant of concern.”

Ryan Knutson: What do you make of the fact that it was so fast? I mean like, is that just a sign that, the world is getting better and more well equipped at identifying new variants?

Gabrielle Steinhauser: I think, it’s scientists are really attuned. They obviously had a clear line established to the political leadership, right? I mean, not every scientist is going to get a meeting with the president on sort of like 24 hours notice. So, I think it just was kind of like a well-oiled machine that kicked into action.

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