i'm not sure this is going to change the trajectory of the current surge in the united states which is dropping rapidly. >> so reading this, it says researchers in japan say ba.2 should no longer be considered a type of omicron. that it has more than 40 gene changes and it should be looked at as its own variant. significant? >> no. again, it is a -- you can call it a cousin or distant relative. i am not sure it really matters. it is a mutated virus. this virus will continue to mutate which is the reason why we need to do what we know how to do which is to vaccinate people. the more people who are vaccinated the less virus there is in human beings, the less opportunity there is for this virus to mutate. and the sooner we can really put this behind us. but there's still a lot of omicron circulating in the