CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – The omicron variant of the coronavirus is moving faster than surveillance systems can track it and has so unnerved some medical experts that they're starting to put the brakes on preparations for their holiday gatherings.

"Personally, I'm reevaluating plans for the holidays," Bronwyn MacInnis, director of pathogen genomic surveillance at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard University, said on a call with reporters Tuesday. "It's the responsible thing to do and what feels right given the risk."

She and a handful of other Massachusetts-based researchers on the call said they've been stunned by the pace by which omicron has been crowding out other variants and taking over the pandemic.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that about 3% of COVID-19 cases in the U.S. are omicron. But MacInnis said she believes that number was probably an underestimate on Dec. 11 – just three days ago – when the CDC first announced it, and now it’s likely much higher.

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