What ancestor a new variant will come from isn't really predictable, and so far the newer dominant strains aren't directly related to the prior one (i.e. Delta didn't mute from Alpha, Omicron didn't mutate from Delta, etc.). So the next variant of concern might be unrelated to Omicron at all. Which would make sense, because once you have a high level of immunity to a variant (as we do with Omicron), the fittest virus is going to be one that's as different from the prior dominant one as possible, since that will allow it to spread more easily.
That said, Moderna is producing a bivalent vaccine that targets both the original strain and Omicron, which should give better breadth of protection. At least that's what they found in their prior studies which combined the original formulation with one targeted at the Beta variant. That produced a better response to both variants (as well as most others) than the original did. And it should provide better protection against Omicron as long as that remains dominant, which will be important for at-risk people.
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