This article was originally published in The Current .
Speed is everything in the race against COVID-19’s Omicron variant, the fastest version of the virus we’ve seen to date. Its dizzying rise to dominance in the United States threatens to overwhelm our already beleaguered healthcare system, as physicians across the country grapple with how to treat their mounting caseloads.
But a new lab test developed by UC Santa Barbara doctoral student Zach Aralis has been giving local Santa Barbara County hospitals and clinics a boost in their efforts to get ahead of Omicron, and it could serve as a template for defense against future major COVID variants.