The highly contagious and immune-evasive Omicron variant that swept through the world with incredible speed over the past year was first detected in South Africa in mid-November 2021 and spread to 87 countries in a matter of weeks, outcompeting the previously dominant Delta variant by the end of December.  Since then, speculations about the origin of this variant have centered around two main theories: while some scientists argued that the coronavirus jumped from a human to an animal host (presumably mice), where it evolved silently before...