Editor's note: This is the second article in a 7-part series that highlights the work of technicians and scientists in Military Health System laboratories who worked to identify COVID-19 variants using special sequencing technology.

Throughout the last two years, scientists and leaders have worked to identify ways to detect and respond to emerging SARS-CoV-2 variants. The Walter Reed Army Institute of Research'Opens WRAIRs Viral Diseases Branch has played a vital role in these efforts through consistent access to unique samples from various geographic combatant commands. A few of these locations include the U.S. Central Command and U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, as well as multiple recruit and trainee sites within the U.S. Northern Command.

VDB'Ss support for outbreak investigations at these locations has been a valuable asset to the Department of Defense and the Military Health System and provided important force health protectionOpens Health.mil context for controlling SARS-CoV-2 in these DOD high-priority settings.

"The Global Emerging Infections Surveillance and Response System has been a critical partner for the VDB as a sponsor of our SARS-CoV-2 surveillance efforts over the course of the pandemic," said Dr. Matthew Conte, lead of the VDB Viral Genomics and Bioinformatics section. "With their support, we were able to provide near real-time, actionable data that directly informed force health protection measures implemented at DOD installations both at home and abroad."