AFTER SWIFTLY PROLIFERATING its way through Europe and then Africa, the latest COVID-19 variant of concern, B.1.1.529, also known as Omicron, is officially here on the shores and in the airports of North America. It’s coming to America. Today.
Early mentions of the variant contained conflicting spellings of “Omicron” and “Omnicron,” which then infected the media streams, along with mangled pronunciations.
Eventually the dominant legitimate information channels began to reiterate the correct spelling, driving the ersatz “Omnicron” off our Google searches. However, the ‘crons, Omi and Omni, both put down roots in our itchy brains, and now provide purpose and meaning to Hmm Weekly’s prosecution of its monthly mission to use up The Brick House Cooperative’s unused monthly allotment of Associated Press photos. If we don’t use up those images, they wither like failed variants in a roomful of the double-vaxxed and boosted, and that’s a waste of good Associated Press imagery, as well as The Brick House’s finite operating expenses.
So in acknowledgement of the latest aspect of the Global Pandemic, we give you: OMI/OMNI.
Four WAAC girls find this drilling business is no cinch after a grueling march. The co-eds relax at the Alpha OMIcron Pi Sorority House in Bloomington, Indiana, Oct. 24, 1942. From left to right are: Kathryn Current of Topeka, Ind.; Elsie Chalfant of Griffin, Ind.; Becky Mott (rear, sleeping) of Warren, Ind., and Doris Steinmetz, on floor of Evansville, Ind. They rest eight tired feet. (AP Photo)The University of Alabama’s newest Alpha OMIcron Pi member, Kiy Ford, left, puts on her sorority shirt after being accepted during sorority Bid Day on Saturday, Aug. 16, 2014, in Tuscaloosa, Ala. The university became embroiled in controversy in 2013 after the student newspaper reported some white sororities had rejected blacks as new members because of race. At the end of 2014 sorority recruitment, black women made up 1 percent of new members. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)Lupita Nyong’o, a cast member in the film “Queen of Katwe,” poses for a portrait at The OMNI King Edward Hotel on Monday, Sept. 12, 2016, in Toronto. (Photo by Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP)Portland Trail Blazers center Bill Walton (32) gapes as he grapples with Atlanta Hawks center Randy Denton in first period action at Atlanta OMNI, Jan. 16, 1977, jockeying for position on a rebound. Walton won the arm wrestling action and got the rebound in their NBA game. (AP Photo/OBJ)In this image made with a fisheye lens, Sheria Germany, left, Velvet Boulden, center, and Shelly Tucker, right, work on the annual cleaning of each of the 1754 pieces of crystal in each of the three chandeliers in the lobby of the OMNI William Penn hotel Thursday, Nov. 11, 2010 in Pittsburgh. (AP Photo/Keith Srakocic)In this Nov. 4, 2015 photo, Bangladeshi blogger OMI Rahman Pial talks on the phone while checking social media at a friends apartment where he has been living for few days in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Pial has changed homes five times in the last three months. He hasn’t seen his young daughter in weeks and is afraid to be seen on the streets of Dhaka, Bangladesh’s capital and home to several grisly killings of secular bloggers like him. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)The 7ft. 3 inch Buddhist obelisk was erected in 1692. Everyday villagers offer flowers and prayers or burn incense on visits to this hillock in Isle of OMI, Japan on Dec. 7, 1959, into whose side some 300 have been interred. Engraved on the obelisk, “reprose ye peacefully under Buddha’s mercy. We have caught and killed you against our wishes had you been able to survive without your mothers, we would have freed you. You are, however, now Buddha’s children, entitled to all benedictions.” (AP Photo)In this Wednesday, Aug. 13, 2014 photo, warm stone massages for hands and feet are demonstrated by OMNI Hotels & Resorts, at the International Spa Association event, in New York. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)Sen. George McGovern, second left, met with members of different religious denominations in Nashua, New Hampshire, May 12, 1971, where he spent part of his visit to New Hampshire, the state in which the first presidential primaries are held. Left to right, are Rev. Victor Scallise, Baptist, Mrs. Harry Kaplan Jewish, and Catholic priest Rev. Joseph Debergh, O.M.I., all of Lowell, Massachusetts. (AP Photo/Frank C. Curtin)Penthouse magazine vice chairman and president of OMNI magazine Kathy Keeton toasts her $2 million libel award with Penthouse publisher Robert Guccione at his New York apartment, Aug. 7, 1986. A jury ruled on Thursday that Hustler magazine and publisher Larry Flynt had libeled Keeton. (AP Photo/Ron Frehm)Republican delegates and supporters attend the state Republican congress, where candidates competed for the GOP nomination to run for Rep. Cory Gardner’s congressional seat, at the OMNI Interlocken Hotel, in Broomfield, Colo., Friday April 11, 2014. Gardner is stepping down to challenge Democratic U.S. Sen Mark Udall in November. (AP Photo/Brennan Linsley)In this photo taken on Thursday, Dec. 17, 2009, volunteers count small change donated by supporters of Prita Mulyasari, a former patient who was sued by OMNI International Hospital for defamation and ordered to pay 204 million rupiah ($22,000) in damages, at a collecting station in Jakarta, Indonesia. Prita wasn’t looking for fame when she complained to friends via e-mail that hospital staff had misdiagnosed her mumps as dengue fever. But the hospital, in a move it probably now regrets, went on the offensive and took her to court over the e-mail after learning about it. The 32-year-old mother of two has since become a national symbol for the plight of the little person in Indonesia. So far supporters have donated more than 600 million rupiah ($63,000). (AP Photo/Tatan Syuflana)Former astronaut Buzz Aldrin, one of the first three astronauts to walk on the moon, right, speaks into part of a man’s space costume during OMNI Magazine’s sixth anniversary celebration at New York’s Limelight disco, Wednesday, Oct. 17, 1984, New York. (AP Photo/Ron Frehm)Fireworks explode over the OMNI Life Stadium during the Pan American Games opening ceremony in Guadalajara, Mexico, Friday, Oct.14, 2011. (AP Photo/Javier Galeano)President Ronald Reagan addresses a “Spirit of America” rally at the OMNI Coliseum in Atlanta, Jan. 26, 1984. (AP Photo/Ira Schwarz)A visitor rides on a Honda Motor Co.’s Uni-Cub during the annual CEATEC advanced technologies exhibition in Chiba near Tokyo Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2013. Equipped with its own OMNI Traction Drive System, the rider of the compact upright vehicle can move in any direction. (AP Photo/Shizuo Kambayashi)Singer Beyonce performs the song “Grown Woman” with dancers “Les Twins” on her “Mrs. Carter Show World Tour 2013”, on Wednesday, April 24, 2013 at the Palais OMNI Sport Bercy in Paris, France. Beyonce is wearing a custom printed romper with bustle by designer Kenzo. (Photo by Frank Micelotta/Invision for Parkwood Entertainment/AP Images.Gamers demonstrate on the Virtuix OMNI virtual reality treadmills at the Electronic Entertainment Expo on Wednesday, June 11, 2014, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)In this Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2013 photo a copy of the final edition of The Dallas Times Herald from the afternoon of November 22, 1963 proclaims the assassination of President John Fitzgerald Kennedy. The paper along with a circa 1960’s General Electric television broadcast camera owned by KTVT television in Dallas, Texas are part of a themed memorabilia auction “Camelot: Fifty Years After Dallas” at the OMNI Parker House hotel in Boston. The television camera was used by KTVT to record the shooting of Lee Harvey Oswald by Jack Ruby in the basement of the Dallas Police Station on Nov. 24, 1963. (AP Photo/Stephan Savoia)Banquet manager Harry Siebert, center, lights candles with other service employees on a birthday cake during the centennial celebration of the OMNI William Penn Hotel, Wednesday, March 9, 2016, in Pittsburgh. According to the master-of-ceremonies at the event, the building was built by industrialist Henry Clay Frick and opened on March 9,1916. (AP Photo/Keith Srakocic)Justin Timberlake, from left, ASCAP president Paul Williams, former President Jimmy Carter and Trisha Yearwood take a photo after Yearwood received the Voice of Music Award during the 53rd Annual ASCAP Country Music Awards at the OMNI Hotel on Monday, Nov. 2, 2015 in Nashville, Tenn. (Photo by Sanford Myers/Invision/AP)Ashura Michael, 23, of Kenya, who is deaf and says she is the first deaf woman in Africa to go to law school, listens as President Barack Obama speaks during a Young African Leaders Initiative event at the OMNI Shoreham Hotel, Wednesday, Aug. 3, 2016, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)The painting ‘OMI Obini’ by Wifredo Lam hangs at Sotheby’s in New York, Friday, June 26, 2020. The auction house projects the painting will sell for between $8 and 12 million during an online-only live stream video auction on Monday, June 29, 2020. (AP Photo/Ted Shaffrey)FILE – In this Dec. 6, 1955, file photo, promoter Jack Kramer does the serving and his pro tennis stars show fine racquet form at a luncheon at Leone’s restaurant in New York. From left are players: Pancho Gonzales, Pancho Segura, Tony Trabert and Rex Hartwig, who open a 100-city tour in New York’s Madison Square Garden. Pancho Segura, who rose from poverty to win three U.S. Pro Tennis Championships in a row and was one of the world’s greatest players in the 1950s, has died. He was 96. Segura died Saturday, Nov. 18, 2017, from complications of Parkinson’s disease at his home in the OMNI La Costa Resort & Spa in Carlsbad, California, his son, Spencer Segura of Connecticut, said Sunday. (AP Photo/Anthony Camerano, File)In this image released on Tuesday, March 2, 2021, the OMNI® extracorporeal platform is intended to perform continuous blood purification treatments and therapeutic plasma exchange. The OMNI® in combination with OMNIset®* disposable kits is indicated for patients with acute kidney injury and/or fluid overload and/or intoxication. B. Braun Avitum AG and CytoSorbents Corporation Announce Global Co-Marketing Agreement to Promote the OMNI® Continuous Blood Purification Platform with CytoSorb®. Press release and media available to download at www.apmultimedianewsroom.com/newsaktuell. HANDOUT IMAGE – Free to use, please refer to special instructions. (B. Braun Melsungen AG/news aktuell via AP Images)Benfica supporters cheer on the stands during the Portuguese Primeira Liga soccer match between Belenenses SAD and SL Benfica, Saturday, Nov. 27, 2021. Belenenses SAD started the match with only nine players due to a coronavirus outbreak. Portuguese health authorities on Monday, Nov. 29, 2021, identified 13 cases of OMIcron, the new coronavirus variant spreading fast globally, among members of Belenenses SAD. (AP Photo/Pedro Rocha)
Thank you for proliferating all the way to the end of this month’s Associated Press Image Dump, which we also intend to have serve as a reminder that The Brick House Cooperative spends money to bring you the best—and, in this case, the most—online content we can. Please support us through our ongoing subscription drive or go ahead and make a one-time donation.
Thank you very much for reading, or at least looking at the pictures.
