Free Republic

Dr. Anthony Fauci predicted Tuesday that the global case tally for Omicron will “change rapidly” as it spreads around the world. The White House chief medical adviser said at a briefing that the latest COVID-19 variant has already proven it spreads at a fast pace by sweeping all of the provinces in South Africa, where it was first detected by scientists last week before popping up elsewhere. “Confirmed cases as of yesterday were 205 in 18 countries, and just this morning, that’s gone up to 226 in 20 countries — and I think you’re going to expect to see those...

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to cause economic and social disruption in addition to infections and deaths, it is slowly becoming clear that the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is changing as it spreads to different regions. This trend is driven by spontaneous adaptive mutations, shaped by the different selection pressures exerted by varying environmental conditions and hosts. This has been enhanced by the adoption of lockdowns and other social distancing measures. Now, a new study published on the preprint server bioRxiv* in August 2020 shows the importance of uncovering the dynamics of the virus with particular attention...