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Decoding Omicron
Everything We Know (and Don't Know) About the Latest Variant of Concern
by Chris Martenson
Friday, November 26, 2021, 10:21 PM
So, the tally so far:
• 82 total cases
• Zero hospitalizations
• Zero deaths
• One entire world freaking out
Now why the freakout?
Well, probably because the family tree for this variant makes zero evolutionary sense. At least to me. So far every subsequent mutation that has led to a new variant, or to a new family of variants (called a ‘clade’) has an easily tracked family history. Each new mutation is built upon the prior mutations.
If you plot these out with dots and line the resulting graph looks like a sideways shrub. Not with Omicron, or B.1.1.529. It sticks out like a whole different thing all on its own. I get concerned on a variety of levels when I see something so unusual, and I guess other people do too (but probably for very different reasons):
