How South African scientists discovered Omicron and set off a global chain reaction

In the early days of November, laboratory technicians at Lancet Laboratories in Pretoria, South Africa, found unusual features in samples they were testing for the coronavirus.

Essentially, a gene was missing in what would be a normal genome profile of the virus. PCR tests weren't detecting one of their expected targets, a signal that something about the virus had changed.

Just a few days later, the same phenomenon was reported at Lancet's Molecular Pathology Department in Johannesburg.