variant is the sure number of mutations it has. of course smarter minds are saying it and i'm learning more about it. but how significant is just, the number of mutations versus what these mutations actually do? >> yeah. that's a great question. i should just context-wise, there have been, you know, lots and lots of variants that have emerged through this pandemic, but only a few have risen to the level of being a viariant of concern nape of seen certain mutations out of the 50 or so that omicron has that have been associated with being able to evade antibodies. that's some of that immunity escape. there is other mutations that may make it more transmissible. so these are signals. it's kind of like cooking in a way. you're putting a bunch of things together in a dish. do they retain specific qualities or is something else entirely going to come out of all these mutations? we don't know. in the past, kate, they made a