The Omicron variant that has become a major concern for public health officials is undergoing rigorous testing and UAMS Chancellor Dr. Cam Patterson expects to have many questions answered before Christmas, he said in a Sunday (Dec. 5) interview on Talk Business & Politics.

How transmissible is the variant? Does Omicron make people sicker than previous strains of COVID-19? How do the vaccines that have been developed hold up against Omicron? These are mysteries Patterson expects science to solve in the next few weeks.

“I think we’ll have pretty good answers to the unknown questions within the next couple of weeks, certainly before Christmas holiday,” he said. “There are a lot of unknowns. What we do know is that it is spreading globally. It’s now in the United States, it’s in Canada. It will eventually get to Arkansas I suspect before the next week or two is out and we’ll start detecting this variant here in the state of Arkansas. And because there’s so much uncertainty it’s difficult to know how to react.”

https://talkbusiness.net/2021/12/uams-chancellor-expects-omicron-unknowns-to-be-solved-by-christmas/