The Ever-Expanding Omicron Family Remains the Dominant Strain, Too

As it evolves, Omicron continually finds new ways to evade immunity, which is bad news for us

It's been nearly three years since the first cases of SARS-CoV-2 surfaced, and evolutionary biologists say they see no evidence that its evolution is waning, with most of that change occurring within the Omicron family. 

Unlike the earlier variants that sprouted new branches on the evolutionary tree, Omicron has not been so willing to pass the baton. It keeps sprouting subvariants that then compete against each other for domination.

"We seem to be seeing for the first time, evidence of widescale convergent evolution," University of Chicago viral geneticist Manon Ragonnet-Cronin told NPR reporter Rob Stein. "We have what people are calling a swarm of omicron viruses, which have different ancestries within omicron, but which have the same set of mutations."

To learn more about Omicron's habits and what this means for the general public, check out the entire story and podcast on NPR Shots.