2021: The year of variants

In our first programme of the year, we gathered a group of scientific experts directly involved in analysing the structure and impact of the SARS- Cov-2 coronavirus. There were concerns over the emergence of two new variants, Alpha and Beta, especially whether these variants might spread more quickly, or outmanoeuvre the suite of new vaccines that were about to be rolled out.

Now the same questions are being asked about the Omicron variant’s ability to spread and overcome our defences. We’ve invited the same scientists back to give us their assessment of our journey with Covid-19 over the past year, and discuss their findings on Omicron. The programme features:

Ravi Gupta, Professor of Clinical Microbiology at the University of Cambridge

Tulio de Oliveira, Professor of Bioinformatics, Stellenbosch University, South Africa

Dr Allie Greaney from the Medical Scientist Training Program at the University of Washington School of Medicine

Professor Jeremy Luban from the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard Presenter: Roland Pease

Producer: Julian Siddle Image: Local residents queue to receive a dose of the Covid-19 vaccine in Parkhurst, Johannesburg (Credit: Luca Sola/AFP via Getty Images)