Cyprus’ Deltacron could just be contamination, Imperial College virologist says
A researcher at Imperial College in London, which has driven much of the UK’s response to the Covid pandemic, says the ‘Deltacron’ variant Cyprus may have discovered “looks to be quite clearly contamination”.
In a Twitter thread, Dr Tom Peacock, a virologist, gave a technical explanation for his conclusion, saying “true recombinants don’t tend to appear until a few weeks/months after there’s been substantial co-circulation – we’re only a couple of weeks into Omicron – I really doubt there are any prevalent recombinants yet..”
The Cypriot ‘Deltacron’ sequences reported by several large media outlets “look to be quite clearly contamination” he said.
Peacock said there were lots of reports of Omicron sequences carrying Delta-like mutations such as P681R or L452R. “Although a subset of these might end up being real, the vast majority will most likely turn out to be contamination or coinfection. No clear signals of anything real or nasty happening (yet),” he added.
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https://cyprus-mail.com/2022/01/09/coronavirus-cyprus-deltacron-could-just-be-contamination-imperial-college-virologist-says/