(ORDO NEWS) — Experts believe that the hybrid of Omicron and Delta, which was allegedly found in Cyprus, is in fact a mistake. Virologists from the UK have analyzed in detail the RNA sequence of the new coronavirus strain and are confident that such a virus does not exist in nature.
As numerous practice shows, coronaviruses are able to combine genetically, but this happens only in isolated cases. After the mutation, dubbed Datacron, was studied in more detail, experts concluded that this was unlikely.
Tom Peacock, a virologist at Imperial College London, wrote that the Deltacron discovered in Cyprus looks too artificial. He also noted that his sequences cannot be grouped on a phylogenetic tree. In turn, Jeffrey Barrett, who works at the UK’s Wellcome Sanger Institute, said that possible mutations are located in that part of the genome that is most vulnerable to errors. They can be accepted directly during the sequencing procedure.
The WHO response was not long in coming. Representatives of the organization said that there is absolutely no point in talking about a combination of two completely different strains of coronavirus. Deltacron, on the other hand, may actually be just the result of contamination of the resulting sample.
The allegedly new variant of the Deltacron coronavirus became known in early January this year. It combines the characteristics of strains such as Delta and Omicron.
Leontios Kostrikis noted that these cases of infection indicate the presence of a rather strong evolutionary pressure on the ancestral strain, which leads to the emergence of new mutations. But not all experts agree with his assumption.
WHO experts talked about why more and more new strains of coronavirus continue to appear. The World Health Organization is confident that the reason for what is happening is nothing more than a too low level of vaccination.
Also, to some extent, people themselves are to blame for the emergence of new strains of the virus. The WHO has emphasized that it will not be possible to stop the pandemic until a sufficiently reliable herd immunity is developed. It is worth paying attention to the fact that today humanity has already encountered such strains of coronavirus as Alpha, Beta, Delta, Gamma, Omicron and Deltacron.
Experts believe that people have independently created very suitable conditions for the emergence of new variants of the virus.
Many may think that Omicron is quite safe, but in fact, everything is far from so rosy. Absolutely all strains of coronavirus can cause not only hospitalization, but also death. Despite the fact that at first glance, Omicron may not seem at all dangerous, for example, like Delta, but it should also be treated with great caution.
The WHO noted that Omicron in most cases is very easily tolerated, especially if a person has been vaccinated. But this does not mean at all that it can be attributed to the number of “light” viruses.
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