Rivalry between Humans and Coronaviruses: Unanticipated Impact of Omicron

TL;DR

This paper explores how the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 unexpectedly changed the course of the pandemic through high transmissibility and mutations.

Contribution

The paper highlights Omicron's unique role in potentially ending the pandemic due to its transmissive success and stochastic behavior.

Findings

Omicron's high transmissibility has significantly altered the trajectory of the pandemic.

The variant's mutations may lead to competitive elimination of other SARS-CoV-2 strains.

Omicron's success could mark an unanticipated turning point in the pandemic.

Abstract

With our prior Commentary we discussed the rivalry between ideation (humans) and mutations (viruses), (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8439168/), and more specifically, we described and compared two means of adaptability: collective and focused ideation for humans and self-serving mutation for viruses. The amazingly fast development of new effective and safe vaccines and drugs requires the humankind’s most sophisticated form of ideation ability to respond to threatening stressors such as a dangerous virus like SARS-CoV-2. The essence of what makes us human is that human ideation requires a society of people working towards the same goal and is interdependent on socialization for the sustainability of humankind. In contrast, viruses mutate alone and “selfishly”. The best fit virus for a particular environment, for a particular host, eliminates the competition through successive mutations. The Omicron variant of concern (VoC) is a great example for how higher transmissibility and perhaps, stochasticity, can drive the transmissive success of a virus across an entire host species like humans. With this review, we describe how Omicron has impacted the COVID-19 pandemic in an unanticipated way that could bring an end to it.

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