A holiday season overshadowed by a new COVID-19 threat

LOS ANGELES — With numbers confirming a fifth wave of COVID-19 led by the omicron variant, the lights of the holiday season have grown suddenly dim. Travel plans, parties and celebrations meant to make up for lost time have been canceled or recalibrated. The disappointment is real, but nature's rules are often at odds with human intentions.

Adapting, modifying, shapeshifting, SARS-CoV-2 is a predator unlike any other, seeking out new hosts with unsentimental efficiency. Its delta variant kills 1,300 Americans a day and has helped push the death toll over 800,000. In three months, that number is expected to reach a million.

Now omicron is further complicating the picture and raising questions about national resolve