I answered this on another thread, let me know if you want links.
It's not predesign, it's that WHO agreed from the start that a single missing marker in the existing rapid tests can be taken as a proxy for saying it's Omicron. However, this marker can mean any of the top four variants, Alpha, Gamma, Omicron, Delta. They only know for sure if it's Omicron by ordering a sequencing test after the rapid test, which is very rarely done.
That's why suddenly everything is testing Omicron: because Delta "is" Omicron. That's why they had to back out some Omicron numbers: because a few tests were submitted for sequencing and found not to be Omicron.
On the day that Omicron was defined, WHO said quietly that any test with this missing marker can be counted as Omicron for reporting purposes, creating an instant variant pandemic by definition.
I answered this on another thread, let me know if you want links.
It's not predesign, it's that WHO agreed from the start that a single missing marker in the existing rapid tests can be taken as a proxy for saying it's Omicron. However, this marker can mean any of the top four variants, Alpha, Gamma, Omicron, Delta. They only know for sure if it's Omicron by ordering a sequencing test after the rapid test, which is very rarely done.
That's why suddenly everything is testing Omicron: because Delta "is" Omicron. That's why they had to back out some Omicron numbers: because a few tests were submitted for sequencing and found not to be Omicron.
On the day that Omicron was defined, WHO said quietly that any test with this missing marker can be counted as Omicron for reporting purposes, creating an instant variant pandemic by definition.