So now we have Deltacron.

I'm not sure that's true MOnica. The death rate for those with flu is higher than those with Covid, but far more people have caught Covid than flu.

Cases, hospitalisations and deaths have all risen over the last couple of days. Hopefully, it isn't the start of a trend.

The government has just stopped funding the ZOE study and I don't trust the government data anyway. For a start, re-infections aren't counted in the official stats and we know that some people have been re-infected a number of times.

It is worth remembering that today it was reported that in the UK more people now are dying of flu than are dying of COVID (all variants)

I think the time has come to have a more balanced view and reflect how much better things are getting as well, as all the negative news and events. 97% of the population have COVID antibodies, from the vaccination or having the illness and hospital admissions have fallen by 88% from their height. And, as noted above, more are now dying of flu than of COVID.

volver

Read it again GG13

Will do volver in the morning,

I bow to your superior knowledge on this, and I am not being sarcastic. I am the ignoramus in our family when it comes to science.

Read it again GG13

What is Deltacron?
As the portmanteau suggests, Deltacron is a Covid variant that contains elements of Delta and Omicron – in other words, it contains genes from both variants, making it what is known as a recombinant virus.

"^These recombinants arise when more than one variant infects and replicates in the same person, in the same cells,” says Prof Lawrence Young, a virologist at the University of Warwick. “Deltacron is a product of both the Delta and Omicron variants circulating in the same population^.”

This week, Gisaid, a global community of scientists that shares virus information, posted that the first solid evidence for this variant had been shared by the Pasteur Institute in France.

Dr Etienne Simon-Loriere of the Institut Pasteur cautioned that there could be several different recombinant viruses formed from Delta and Omicron.

“^The one we see in France and in Denmark/Netherlands look super similar and might be the same recombinant (with the same parental viruses) that have travelled,” he said. But, he added, the possible Delta-Omicron recombinants reported in countries including the UK and US appear to combine different pieces of their parental viruses, and therefore differ to the Deltacron seen in France^.

We might need to find a different name to indicate these recombinant, or start adding a number,” he said

Fri 11th March 2022

www.theguardian.com/world/2022/mar/11/what-is-deltacron-covid-variant-uk

Cases of Covid have risen throughout the UK countries.

L’Institute Pasteur has identified and named Deltacron according to Sky News.

It may be Omegacron one day.

Should we be worried? - from the Sky News article

The Delta variant had more severe effects on those who caught it, while Omicron was more infectious. This may cause concern over a strain combined from both.

However, scientists stress there is now substantial immunity in the human population against both variants and there is no reason to think this will pose a danger to vaccines.

Dr William Lee, chief science officer at Helix, a California based lab that sequences COVID-19 samples for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told USA Today: "The fact that there is not that much of it, that even the two cases we saw were different, suggests that it's probably not going to elevate to a variant of concern level."

And Dr Van Kerkhove added in the places where "Deltacron" has been found, "there are very low levels of this detection".

She also confirmed they had not seen "any change in severity", and that studies will continue to track its effects.

Health Secretary Sajid Javid said there were "no concerns at all" when asked about the Deltacron variant.

"There are variants that we would obviously keep under review," he said.

"The most recent one of concern has been Omicron but we have successfully navigated our way through that as a country thanks to the response of the British people.

"There are also so-called subvariants of Omicron and we're not concerned about any of those at this important time.

"We keep it under review but we have no concerns at all."

And from me:

Deltacron is not a variant.

It's a name made up by journalists.