The rapid growth of BA.5 — the most transmissible form of SARS-CoV-2 yet — is scrambling America’s plans to elegantly move to the next stage of the pandemic with the virus under control.

The omicron subvariant, which made up less than one-third of new cases a month ago, is now the most dominant strain in the U.S. BA.5 is troubling for several reasons: it’s better at jumping from person to person than any other strain, and it’s more likely to break through immunity generated by vaccines or infections than omicron and its subvariant…