well be that the virus has increased transmissibility, but it doesn't necessarily mean it is more pathogenic. we just don't know. >> you can have both. you can have increased transmi transmissibility, in other words, it spreads faster, but could be less severe? >> absolutely. we have a number of viruses that are highly transmissible, but they don't cause very severe disease. that's what we'd like to see here if this virus persists. of course, for all of us, we'd like to end this pandemic and eliminate this virus, but unders understo fundamentally, if it mutates to a state where it is highly transmissible but, rather, you know, poorly pathogenic and doesn't cause much disease, or severe disease, we'll be fine with that. >> how many variants are there? >> yeah, there are lots of variants. we've been tracking variants since the beginning of the pandemic. we do that by sequencing, by