Evolved offshoots of the COVID-19 virus, they often have long ass names but most are named some random Sci-Fi star-trek transformer codename shit like omicron or xbb. Some covid variants can even come from other covid variants, covidception.
"I'm infected with COVID Variant Omega-XN.Z/83Y.3/9-Omicron 273XB, i heard it makes you have diarrhea and shit blood."