The next round of COVID-19 vaccines will target one of the latest versions of the coronavirus
  • sundaefundae@lemmy.world
    2·
    1 year ago

    Is anyone here enough of a scientist to explain why we’re still on omicron instead of a new name? I feel like we flew through the Greek letters til we got to omicron and now we’ve been here for a couple years.

    • Ghostalmedia@lemmy.worldOP
      3·
      1 year ago

      Think of it like a tree. You have the initial virus as the trunk, and then you have branches off that trunk (delta, omicron, etc), and then you have branches off of the branches, and so on and so on.

      The most dominant version of coronavirus floating around is XBB.1.16, known as "Arcturus.” Arcturus is off the omicron branch of the evolutionary tree.

  • Mewtwo@lemmy.world
    1·
    1 year ago

    I wonder if we should be getting a booster now since it lasts every 6 months? My fifth shot was back in October.