A new and special variant of COVID, which is being called BA.2 Omicron for now, or "stealth" Omicron, has been detected in the Bay Area and across California, but word among experts is that it's not likely to behave much differently than regular Omicron.

The Omicron variant has been variously touted by pundits and experts alike as a possible key out of the pandemic and into an endemic stage of COVID, and talk of being able to "live with COVID like the flu" is everywhere right now.

As signs point to the Omicron peak already having passed in San Francisco — with case counts falling, as predicted, after a post-holiday surge — we look to the endemic phase of COVID with some trepidation about future variants.

Omicron is everywhere, and a local infectious disease expert is advising all of us to assume we have COVID if we have had a known exposure, or been anywhere in public really — and especially if we have any of an array of symptoms.

A fresh study by UCSF researchers based on data from a walk-up test site in San Francisco found that Abbott's popular BinaxNOW rapid antigen test picked up nearly all of the most highly infectious cases of the Omicron variant, indicating it is a highly useful test for preventing spread of the virus.

While UCSF Department of Medicine Chair Dr. Bob Wachter has mostly been a sunny and optimistic voice through the pandemic, he sounds a bit shaken by a case of Omicron that hit close to home: his 28-year-old son.