Scientists at the 石榴视频黄色版 are sequencing almost 400 local COVID cases this week to see if any involve the new Omicron variant. Sequencing involves looking at each virus sample鈥檚 genetic makeup. That shows any mutations and lets the scientists identify variants. They expect to have results this Thursday or Friday.听

鈥淲e have talked about how important it is to do real-time or as close to real-time analysis as possible,鈥� said , director of Molecular Pathology at MUSC. 鈥淎nd this is a perfect example of when we know that we're looking for something new,听to try to do our sequencing runs more frequently. And so for the next couple of weeks, we're going to try to do a run a week.鈥�

The virus samples came from people who tested positive for COVID-19 at MUSC Health. Each run takes three to four days to complete. MUSC sends its results to the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control and听shares them online听with the public.

听

Hirschhorn and her team feel a sense of urgency as the world watches to see if Omicron becomes a serious problem. Scientists announced the new coronavirus variant鈥檚 discovery in South Africa just last week. Since then, it has shown up in several other countries. No cases have been announced in the United States, but听听it鈥檚 likely already here.

, who works with Hirschhorn, did a retroactive search for Omicron the day after Thanksgiving 鈥� the day the听听designated Omicron a variant of concern.听鈥淚 got up and looked at a good chunk of our recent data,鈥� Glen said.听

听

He knew what to watch for, thanks to a site for scientists that shows what Omicron looks like. Glen was able to compare Omicron鈥檚 genetic sequence with that of the MUSC samples. None matched. The Delta variant, which became the dominant strain in the U.S. last summer, was still king.

But some experts, including Glen, are worried about Omicron because of its high number of mutations. It鈥檚 been described as听鈥渁lmost Frankensteinish.鈥�

鈥淚t has many more mutations in the spike protein 鈥� like three, three-and-a-half times as many as we were seeing in the previous round of variants of concern,鈥� Glen said. 鈥淭he amount of change that represents and the amount of uncertainty it brings is another big reason there's a lot of concern, along with the way it seemed to come out of nowhere.鈥�

It鈥檚 unclear how contagious the new variant is. Scientists say it will take two or three weeks to get a better picture of how easily it spreads, how well vaccines work against it and whether antibodies can beat it back.听

It鈥檚 also unclear how sick Omicron may make people 鈥� and whether it will fizzle like some previous variants, Hirschhorn said. 鈥淭here's always the possibility that these new variants pop up, but for one reason or another, they just don't take hold in, in our population or in our state. So we can cross our fingers.鈥�

But we can also prepare, she said. 鈥淚t's probably a good idea to treat it like it's going to be bad, even though we don't know yet. I don't want to scare people, but at the same time, we've seen these things go both ways. With Mu and Lambda, we were concerned 鈥� rightly so 鈥� but they never took hold. It's important to think about as we go into another holiday season:听How do we keep the people we love safe?鈥�

MUSC has been playing a key role in South Carolina鈥檚 response to the pandemic from its听early days, and Hirschhorn said the Omicron sequencing is a continuation of that. 鈥淢USC is a health care leader in South Carolina,听and as part of that team, I feel an obligation to the state to help monitor this public health situation. And I think that a service like sequencing variants brings comfort to people in some ways, because they know what's going on,鈥� she said,

鈥淪o often during this pandemic, we have all felt helpless 鈥� like we didn't know what was happening. And so to me, and to our lab, it's very important that we try and provide as much information as we can, so that way,听people can at least feel a little bit of control.鈥�