In an ideal world, unvaccinated individuals infected with omicron would be lining up for a vaccine shot.

Andrew Pekosz

As mutations come up in viruses, the ones that persist are the ones that make it easier for the virus to spread in the population, every time the viruses changes, that gives the virus a different platform to add more mutations. Now we have viruses that spread more efficiently.

Every time we see the virus circulating in the population, particularly a population that has pockets of immune people, vaccinated people, and pockets of unvaccinated people, you have a situation where the virus can probe.

The data from Public Health England has shown that Public Health England outcompeted the Alpha variant in that population. That is strong head to head evidence that Public Health England is Public Health England, here in the US it is doing very similar things. It seems to be on its way to becoming the dominant lineage in the US.