China's COVID-19 surge raises odds of new coronavirus variants

Could the COVID-19 surge in China unleash a new coronavirus mutant on the world?

Scientists don't know but worry that might happen. It could be similar to Omicron variants circulating there now. It could be a combination of strains. Or something entirely different, they say.

"China has a population that is very large and there's limited immunity. And that seems to be the setting in which we may see an explosion of a new variant," said Dr. Stuart Campbell Ray, an infectious disease expert at Johns Hopkins University.