In November, shortly after the omicron variant was first detected, scientists discovered that it came in three genetically distinct varieties. They focused on BA.1, because initially this subvariant was about 1000 times more frequent than BA.2; the third subvariant was even rarer. The first to break out was BA.1 and it went around the world, while BA.2 took longer to become significant, but both have been on scientists' radar since the beginning.