It seems that the covid 19 is still here, making headlines like there’s no tomorrow. Well, we hope that not literally. Anyway, check out the latest reports about the virus that triggered a pandemic that managed to change life as we used to know it for good.
New Covid variants lurk around the corner
Earlier this year, all eyes were on the strain called “Deltacron.” This was a frankenvirus, of sorts, that combined Delta and Omicron, and potentially the worst traits of both.
The initial strain, reported in January, failed to take flight. Reports of additional Delta-Omicron hybrids in multiple locations across the globe later emerged, then fizzled.
But at the end of 2022, the Deltacron phenomenon is back, and this time it’s in the form of new Covid variants XBC, XAY, and XAW.
Official notes reveal that there is a worst-case scenario which looks like this: a Delta-Omicron hybrid could be as deadly as the Delta variant—which killed about 3.4%of those it infected, nearly double that of Omicron, according to a 2022 study published in Nature Reviews Immunology. It could also feature the record-setting transmissibility of Omicron as well, according to the same notes.
But predicting the severity of such a strain is even more difficult and this is due to the fact that scientists aren’t sure exactly why Omicron causes less severe disease in many people, when compared to Delta.
another quick recombinant update: yet another chronic-y looking complex Delta x BA.2 recombinant – XBC – pretty low numbers still but pretty similar looking to XAY, XBA and XAW pic.twitter.com/WlOXE8nT16
— Tom Peacock (@PeacockFlu) October 2, 2022
Here’s another relevant tweet:
…Most notably it has some ‘private mutations’ in its RBD not taken from either parent lineage, including some potent antigenic mutations seen in elsewhere in ‘the great convergence’ – XBB is part of this convergent trend and is somewhere in the middle of the pack. pic.twitter.com/SZ9p3jyMK6
— Tom Peacock (@PeacockFlu) October 2, 2022
Check out the original article in order to learn more details.
