MercyOne infectious disease specialist Dr. Ravi Vemuri said early indications show that the new omicron variant is highly transmissible.

"Somebody in South Africa initially detected it, and they saw a tremendous surge in the number of infections there," Vemuri said.

But scientists are still trying to learn just how dangerous this new strain will be.

"[What] we don't know right now is whether the people who do get infected have a severer form of the disease or whether it's a light disease or somewhat the same as delta," Dr. Anthony Fauci said.

In the meantime, Dr. Austin Baeth of UnityPoint cautioned that Iowans need to prepare.

"Omicron will be here," Baeth said. "We don't know when but there's no question it will be in Iowa and we need to do a better job getting used to protecting ourselves and others again."

Omicron has more than 30 mutations to its spike protein, leading some to worry that it may be vaccine-resistant. Baeth said it will take at least a few weeks to know how effective our vaccines are against omicron. But he encouraged Iowans not to wait to get the vaccine or the booster shot.

"The delta variant is already running rampant throughout Iowa. That already remains our biggest risk," Baeth said. "The second reason [not to wait to get vaccinated] is that this likely will have some efficacy against the omicron variant. And probably a third reason is that any new vaccine developed against this new variant is likely to take several months before it would reach arms."

Baeth also noted, when it comes to holiday plans, people should remain flexible as scientists learn more about omicron.

"I think as people plan for the holidays, it would be important that we start to come up with a plan B," he said. "That might be to meet in smaller groups, or to meet remotely, or to take a walk outside, or maybe at the very least to get tested for COVID-19 prior to that family event."