Moore went on to explain that the fact Mu isn’t spreading as rapidly as Delta may mean that the new variant eventually disappears almost altogether. He pointed to the U.K. as an example, saying that when Delta got a foothold in the country in late 2020 the Alpha variant was almost completely dominated.

“One of the things we’ve learned with Delta is that it squelched out less transmissible variants,” Moore said. “It’s the most transmissible variants that dominate. And everything else just becomes less and less of an issue. Unless Mu has unique transmissibility properties, and that would be surprising because it’s not been seen so far.

“It’s survival of the fittest from the virus perspective.”

Moore’s comments were reflected by Dr. Mike Ryan, WHO head of health emergencies, during a press conference on Tuesday during a discussion regarding variants such as Mu.