How terrifying is omicron? Scientists are frantically trying to figure out what's going on.

Pei-Yong Shi, a microbiologist, has investigated all of the varieties, including alpha, beta, gamma, delta, "delta-plus," lambda, and mu. So he was prepared for omicron, the variety that elicited universal dread in a way that none of the others had.

The sheer number of mutations astounded him, as it did other scientists. He also understood what he needed to do next.

Shi works closely with Pfizer and maintains a high-containment laboratory at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston. Over Thanksgiving, his team started working on a duplicate of the novel variation to test against vaccine-induced antibodies. But it isn't something that happens overnight: It will take around two weeks to construct the omicron copy, a few days to ensure that it is an exact replica, and another week to test the virus against blood samples from patients who have been vaccinated.

Shi and colleagues throughout the world are racing to assess the threat presented by omicron, which is quickly spreading across the globe. As the number of cases rises, what occurs in labs over the next several weeks will assist scientists establish the virus' full potential, alerting government leaders and pharmaceutical corporations to whether their worldwide vaccine program has to be revised.

His message was simple: be patient. Wait for the data to arrive.

"I believe there has been a lot of overreaction, and all we can do now is wait," Shi added. "At this point, there are no outcomes; they are simply mutations." What exactly does that imply? We'll have to wait and see."

There's no denying that omicron is unique — and potentially dangerous. It's full of alterations, some of which are thought to assist the coronavirus evade the body's defensive responses. Others are strangers who have just arrived. In the coronavirus spike, where vaccines practice their firepower, Omicron contains more than 30 genetic alterations.

The scientific community, on the other hand, is calm and collected, probably because it has seen this movie before: When a new variety appears, everyone on the globe is eager to learn how horrible it is. Then there's science.

First, researchers will see how effectively the virus can evade existing vaccinations. At the same time, they'll keep a careful eye on what's going on in the actual world. Most scientists believe omicron will be able to get past the virus-blocking antibodies that serve as a first line of defense, but no one knows how skilled an escape artist it will be. Many people also feel that vaccinations will continue to provide some protection, especially against serious illnesses.

Even the most dire omicron scenario — faster-than-delta transmission, a significant deterioration in vaccination protection, and greater incidence of severe illness — isn't hopeless. Companies will reactivate and test omicron-specific vaccinations. Vaccine manufacturers have already begun to alter their vaccines as a precaution, and even conducted a dress rehearsal of this method against the beta strain earlier this year.

Omicron is still littered with ambiguous symbols. Does it spread more easily than delta, as some preliminary research from South Africa suggests? Can it get past the vaccinations' various levels of defense? Is it more pathogenic, meaning it can cause serious illness?

"We're working on it!" "We don't have any data yet!" Penny Moore, the scientist whose South African lab was the first to discover the beta variant's immune-evading potential, said in an email. "Either introduce multiple mutations or increase the living virus to generate the spike."

Coronavirus expert Matthew B. Frieman of the University of Maryland School of Medicine is hoping for samples of the virus to arrive within the next week so he can begin research in lab dishes using immunized mice. Many people, including him, hoped that once vaccine eligibility was increased to include younger children, it would serve as a last stepping stone before returning to a more regular existence.