[Renfrew]

The database of the several million Covid viruses that have been sequenced is publicly available:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/labs/virus/vssi/#/virus?SeqType_s=Nucleotide&VirusLineage_ss=SARS-CoV-2,%20taxid:2697049

If this person thinks Omicron existed widely before being noticed, it would be easy to find examples in the database.

[Worldtraveler once upon a time]

— “If this person thinks Omicron existed widely before being noticed, it would be easy to find examples in the database.”

Please show us how easy by you surveying “the several million...”

Easy. Yup. Easy.