Deltacron

A combination of the delta and omicron variants, deltacron, as it's being called, has been reported in Europe and the United States, though researchers are ...

Whether hospitalizations begin to rise again in the U.S., as they have been in some parts of Europe, will depend on the severity of new variants and what precautions people continue to take. As new variants mutate, they have been better able to infect even vaccinated people, but people who have been fully vaccinated and boosted experience less severe illness and are much less likely to be hospitalized or die of the virus, compared with unvaccinated people. Two cases have been reported in the U.S. — both in California. Almost all cases in the U.S. are attributed to delta or omicron variants. But because it is a mutation of delta and omicron, doctors expect it will behave similarly. It was first identified in France in January and has since been reported in a handful of cases in Europe and the United States, according to the World Health Organization. Delta and omicron are also behind the recent rise in cases in places like Hong Kong.

Admittedly, I went through all five stages of grief when I first saw a reference to “deltacron,” a coronavirus variant. Another one?

Given that the spike protein is so similar to that of omicron, “if you’ve got antibodies that work against the omicron spike, there’s no reason they wouldn’t work against the recombinant spike,” said Adalja. Even if the spike protein was derived from delta, we’ve seen that too, and “we know our vaccines are able to protect against serious illness.” This also applies to the antivirals that work against delta and omicron. Fusing delta and omicron “doesn’t give it superpowers,” says Adalja (though research into it is still ongoing). The name makes it sound like it has all of delta’s and omicron’s strengths and none of their weaknesses. As its unofficial name suggests, it’s a combination of the delta and omicron variants, with a spike protein that’s extremely close to omicron’s and the rest of its genome coming from delta. We know that coronaviruses are going to recombine and there [are] going to be recombinant viruses, but there’s no evidence that this is spreading rapidly or poses any major threat.” In this instance, “I don’t think there’s any need for general worry from the population,” said Dr. Amesh Adalja, an infectious disease doctor and senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security. “I think ‘deltacron’ is more of a clickbait term than actually a real threat that we face. Admittedly, I went through all five stages of grief when I first saw a reference to “deltacron,” a coronavirus variant.

Scientists are learning more about a hybrid variant of COVID-19 that has been detected called "deltacron."

The deltacron variant could appear like the omicron variant. Read more about the omicron COVID-19 variant.

What they’re saying: “We have not seen any change in the epidemiology with this recombinant. We haven’t seen any change in severity. And those with multiple vaccine doses won’t have a problem fighting off the variant, either.