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SARS-CoV-2 variant of concern (VoC), omicron, 2 was reported. Omicron emerged in a COVID-19-weary world in which anger and frustration with the pandemic are rife amid widespread negative impacts on social, mental, and economic wellbeing. Although previous VoCs emerged in a world in which natural immunity from COVID-19 infections was common, this fifth VoC has emerged at a time when vaccine immunity is increasing in the world. The emergence of the alpha, beta, and delta SARS-CoV-2 VoCs were associated with new waves of infections, sometimes across the entire world. 3 For example, the increased transmissibility of the delta VoC was associated with, among others, a higher viral load, 4 longer duration of infectiousness, 5 and high rates of reinfection, because of its ability to escape from natural immunity, 6 which resulted in the delta VoC rapidly becoming the globally dominant variant. The delta …