While politicians around the globe are busy competing among themselves to claim the credit of "beating back" COVID, we know better: we are not out of the woods.

COVID is an RNA virus. Unlike a DNA virus, an RNA virus always can and will vary its antigen super-fast. Yet, its antigen is what our immune system relies on as the counter-attack pointer. As the COVID-19 antigen has probably mutated too fast for our immune system to catch up with, we are now facing a couple of challenging variants. The delta* variant is a bitter reminder for everyone. Going forward, the omicron** variant could be many orders of magnitude worse than the delta variant.

The latest news update indicates that the omicron variant, first identified in Botswana this month, is taking hold in neighboring South Africa. Today even Hong Kong is within its reach.

Stay alert.

Author: Lingyang Jiang

* Delta, the 4th letter of the Greek alphabet, literally means "difference" or "change."

**Omicron, the 15th letter of the Greek alphabet, literally means "small."