Omicron Blind Spot: Why is it so difficult to track coronavirus mutations

Researchers are racing to detect the latest SARS-CoV-2 variant Omicron by sequencing the genome of the coronavirus that infects humans

A positive development is that researchers are sequencing more SARS-CoV-2 genomes than ever before

However, the researchers warned that there are still disturbing gaps in the sequencing data, which makes any explanation for the movement of the variant genes worrying

Different countries have different sequencing rates, which leads to an uneven distribution of a variant within a country

However, even if many positive cases are sequenced in a region, if the test is poor or biased, the mutation may still be missed

Pay attention to the data gap

Faced with such surveillance challenges, Sam Scarpino, an epidemiologist at the Rockefeller Foundation Epidemiological Prevention Institute in Washington, and his colleagues have been looking for new ways to understand the spread of mutant viruses

The team also used Omicron reports uploaded to GISAID every day to build a schedule to draw clearer inspection images

Dave Luo, a data scientist who consulted for the Rockefeller Epidemiological Institute, warned that this timeline alone cannot determine how Omicron spreads

With the influx of new Omega clones from all over the world, all these studies are evolving every day

Luo said that genomic information is biased and confused in many ways