THE OMICRON VARIANT

I can hear the lugubrious minor-key Moog synthesizer theme already.

Sounds like a damn pharmaceutical plant.

Omicron Pharmaceuticals..

This was the film debut of Jaqueline Bisset!

Omicron, a division of Cyberdyne!

I still can’t believe the movie expected us to believe Rod Steiger and Jacqueline Bisset as a couple.

The Greek Alphabet:

After "Delta," what happened to Epsilon, Zeta, Eta, Theta, Iota, Kapta, Lambda, Mu, Nu, Xi...and then Omicron? There are many letters between "Delta" and "Omicron."

See the Greek alphabet--letters and symbols--and the sound pronunciation for each:

Not sure if you’re being deliberately obtuse, R6, but I’ll bite.

All variants are named, but not all make a name for themselves. (Do you see what I did there?)

And gee, thanks for learning us about the Greek alphabet.

The Omicron Strain - Coming soon to a theater (and a hospital, a school, a stadium, a church, a prison, a nursing home, ad infinitum) near you!

R7. You mean there have been others variants since Delta, but we haven't heard of them because they didn't make much of a splash? So, Omicron is the first variant to make a name for itself since Delta?

I guess Epsilon, Theta, Eta, etc. came and went in a flash.

Helen Lawson was originally hired to provide the voice of the Computer, but she departed when the director wouldn’t allow her to use her trademark “Small Fry” to the end of her lines. “Countdown Sequence Initiating, Small Fry.” “Unable to Disable Lasers, Small Fry.” She was replaced of course by Orson Welles.

Damn Omicron just caused us a fortune in the stock market.

The Dow closed down 905 point (2.5 percent drop) today while Nasdaq and S&P closed down, 353 and 106 points, respectively.

I am LRRRR, from Omicron Persei 8, and I am here to destroy YOU and your entire planet...

According to Botswana all four patients were fully vaxxed. Now who didn't see that coming? And notice how they gave it a snazzy name to make it sound super scary. Pathetic

Are you sure this variant isn't a Transformer?

Why can't they give them human names, like hurricanes?

R5, I know. Talk about a total lack of chemistry! But Terence Stamp as Lt. Commander Jexxon of the Processing Department -- well, I don't have to tell you about the legendary VPL of his tight polyester uniform trousers. It gave me strange tingly feelings when I saw it on TV as a kid.

Imagine sharing a name with a COVID variant...

Don't worry until they give it another name outright, like COVID 21.

Until then, the vaccines will all retain some efficacy against it as it may become more transmissible and more deadly to the unvaccinated.

More dead unvaccinated...boo-hoo.

I remember a "Lambda" variant - in Brazil maybe?

Maybe they've used all the letters but most of them haven't made an impact? Or maybe for some bizarre reason, they're skipping some of the letters.

Ah, just dawned on me I could look it up:

It was first detected in Peru in August 2020. On 14 June 2021, the World Health Organization (WHO) named it Lambda variant and designated it as a variant of interest. It has spread to at least 30 countries around the world and is known to be more resistant to neutralizing antibodies compared to other strains.

R6 and R9 doesn’t seem like a complete fool, and able to read, perhaps this will help…

The book was better.

[quote]Omicron, a division of Cyberdyne!

All part of the Umbrella Corporation.

Which is, in turn, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Weyland-Yutani.

They should do a reboot of The China Syndrome but about COVID called The Chinaman Syndrome: Omicron Rising

Growing up my dad used to read Robert Ludlum books. The Omicron Variant sounds like a Ludlum title.

“Jason Bourne up against an unknown killer, COVID-19. Can he save the day, or is time running out? Starring Matt Damon as Jason Bourne and special guest appearance by Lena Dunham as the Omicron Variant.”

There are now two cases of Omicron in the UK so probably a thousand by this time next week.