Omicron

Thanks to covid-19, we'll eventually learn the Greek alphabet. The letter of the month is omicron.

Omicron is spreading rapidly.

They say that the covid-19 omicron variant is as contagious as measles.

Goldman Sachs, the American financial powerhouse, is trying to factor into its investment decisions and counsel all possible Omicron outcomes — from a worst-case scenario of greater virulence and vaccine-evasion to the nice surprise that the vaccines remain efficacious, and Omicron turns out to be more benign than its forerunner.

The World Health Organization reports the surge of the fast-spreading Omicron variant in Africa appears to have peaked and is flattening in most African countries.

The emergence of the Omicron variant has caused financial markets to swoon and national leaders to order or threaten fresh pandemic measures aimed at preventing the strain’s spread.

That's the reaction by many people regarding the coronavirus pandemic, as the delta variant appeared to be winding down, only to be replaced by omicron.

In the U.S, medical professionals are warning would-be revelers that, as omicron surges, now is not the time to be in big crowds.

Your Majestie knows that unfortunate I [...] was the first who when I published my Poem of Italia Liberata endeavoured to bring the Omicron, Eupselon, Omega, and other Greek Letters, which I thought very requisite for that language, into my own Tongue;

The E serves both for the Epsilon and Eta; the O, both for the Omicron and Omega, and likewise for the dipthong OΥ.

... They include Mira itself (omicron Ceti) which can be seen shortly before dawn.

There are now seven “variants of interest” or “variants of concern” and they each have a Greek letter, according to a W.H.O. tracking page. Some other variants with Greek letters do not reach those classification levels, and the W.H.O. also skipped two letters just before Omicron — “Nu” and “Xi” — leading to speculation about whether “Xi” was avoided in deference to the Chinese president, Xi Jinping.