There’s Always Going To Be Another Variant

Just when you thought it was safe to live your life again, a new coronavirus variant has emerged. “Omicron,” the fifteenth letter of the Greek alphabet and thirteenth iteration of COVID-19, which conspicuously skipped over the letter “Xi”, threatens to keep us all locked down just a little bit longer to “slow the spread” and “flatten the curve” while public health officials do their darnedest to eradicate the virus, which they will never succeed at doing because there will always be another variant.

Viruses mutate. Viruses that contain RNA as their genetic material, such as coronaviruses and influenza, mutate even more than others. There are four species of influenza, each comprising dozens of subtypes and hundreds of subtype combinations. Despite widespread annual vaccinations and the best efforts of public health experts, influenza continues to spread, as it has since antiquity, and to kill upwards of 650,000 people each year.