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A recent warning from some health professionals has sparked concern around the world amid the concern over the new Omicron type of coronavirus. Since its discovery in South Africa last month, the Omicron strain has been on its way to supplanting the delta version as the dominant strain in the United States.
Is it possible to mix these two highly transmissible strains to generate a super variant? Dr. Paul Burton, Chief Medical Officer of Moderna, believes it is conceivable.
Dr Burton told the UK Parliament’s Science and Technology Committee earlier this week that if Omicron and delta infect the same person at the same time, a new super variant might emerge.
“There is certainly data, and there have been some papers issued earlier from South Africa from the pandemic when people – and certainly immunocompromised people – may carry both viruses,” Dr Burton said, according to the Daily Mail.
He believes this situation is more possible because to the huge number of delta and Omicron cases now circulating in the United Kingdom. According to official numbers, Britain reported 3,201 cases of the new variety on Friday, the largest daily increase since Omicron was discovered, bringing the total number of cases to 14,909.
Both strains might switch genes and create a more hazardous form, Dr Burton warned legislators. Researchers have warned that such “recombination events” are exceedingly unusual, but they can happen if the circumstances are ideal and a series of mostly unpredictable events happen at the same time.
In an interview with Bloomberg earlier this month, Peter White, a virologist at the University of New South Wales, cautioned of the prospect of a super strain arising.
So far, just three recombination events have occurred. When the alpha version fused with B.1.177, which initially appeared in Spain, in late January, British health experts witnessed one such incident.
When the Kent strain combined with B.1.429, scientists in California discovered another recombination variant, they revealed in February.
However, similar occurrences have not resulted in big outbreaks or the spread of a more hazardous strain of the virus. However, given Omicron’s transmissibility and mutations, health professionals are keeping a close eye on what the future holds.
