{"id":1204949,"date":"2022-01-10T13:35:17","date_gmt":"2022-01-10T18:35:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1204949"},"modified":"2022-01-10T13:35:26","modified_gmt":"2022-01-10T18:35:26","slug":"deltacron-or-is-it-just-testing-cross-contamination-of-two-variants","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/deltacron-or-is-it-just-testing-cross-contamination-of-two-variants\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Deltacron\u2019? Or Is It Just Testing Cross-Contamination Of Two Variants?"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">20<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fdeltacron-or-is-it-just-testing-cross-contamination-of-two-variants%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1204949&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>A researcher in Cyprus says he\u2019s discovered a cross strain of the coronavirus that combines the Delta and Omicron variants of SARS-CoV-2, which causes COVID-19. Other experts, however, think it\u2019s just a case of cross-contamination.<\/p>\n<p>Leondios Kostrikis, professor of biological sciences at the University of Cyprus, has dubbed the new strain \u201cDeltacron,\u201d because of its omicron-like genetic signatures within the delta genomes,&nbsp;Bloomberg News <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/articles\/2022-01-08\/cyprus-finds-covid-19-infections-that-combine-delta-and-omicron?sref=ctSjKj2N\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">reported<\/a> on Saturday.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo far, Kostrikis and his team have found 25 cases of the virus, according to the report. It\u2019s still too early to tell whether there are more cases of the strain or what impacts it could have,\u201d CNBC <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/2022\/01\/08\/cyprus-reportedly-discovers-a-covid-variant-that-combines-omicron-and-delta.html\">reported<\/a>. \u201c\u2018We will see in the future if this strain is more pathological or more contagious or if it will prevail\u2019 against the two dominant strains, delta and omicron, Kostrikis said in an interview with Sigma TV Friday. He believes omicron will also overtake deltacron, he added,\u201d the network reported.<\/p>\n<p>But other experts question the findings. \u201cDr. Krutika Kuppalli, an infectious disease expert at the World Health Organization, argued that Deltacron is \u2018not real\u2019 and likely due to lab contamination,\u201d the New York Post <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2022\/01\/10\/cyprus-scientists-discover-deltacron-but-experts-dispute-claim\/\">reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOkay people let\u2019s make this a teachable moment, there is no such thing as #Deltacron,\u201d the&nbsp;infectious diseases physician <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/KrutikaKuppalli\/status\/1480235651547025408\">wrote<\/a> on Twitter. &nbsp;\u201c#Omicron and #Delta did NOT form a super variant. This is likely sequencing artifact (lab contamination of Omicron fragments in a Delta specimen).\u201d<\/p>\n<p>She added: \u201cLet\u2019s not merge of (sic) names of infectious diseases and leave it to celebrity couples.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Omicron variant now accounts for nearly every new case of the virus blanketing the U.S., according to the Centers For Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).&nbsp;The new strain represented 95.4% of sequenced COVID-19 cases during the week ending on New Year\u2019s Day, while the once-dominant Delta variant made up just only 4.6% of sequenced cases, the CDC said.<\/p>\n<p>Omicron took over in just a matter of weeks. At the beginning of December, the variant accounted for less than 1% of sequenced cases, with Delta making up 99% of them. By the week ending on Christmas Day, the CDC estimated the variant to be 58.6% of all new cases.<\/p>\n<p>While data are still being studied for the fast-moving variant, some researchers say Omicron taking over could be good news.<\/p>\n<p>Scientists at the Africa Health Research Institute in Durban recently conducted a small study that found people infected with Omicron \u2014 and especially those who have been fully vaccinated \u2014 developed a higher immunity to Delta.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe research, which has not yet been peer-reviewed, involved 15 vaccinated and unvaccinated Omicron patients in South Africa, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/articles\/2021-12-28\/world-hits-record-daily-covid-cases-as-omicron-mars-christmas\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">according<\/a> to Bloomberg News, which noted that two were excluded because they didn\u2019t detectably neutralize Omicron,\u201d the New York Post <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2021\/12\/28\/south-africa-study-suggests-omicron-infection-could-boost-immunity\/\">reported<\/a>. \u201cThe authors, led by Alex Sigal and Khadija Khan, found that while the neutralization of Omicron increased 14-fold over 14 days after the enrollment, there also was a 4.4-fold increase in neutralization of the Delta variant.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe increase in Delta variant neutralization in individuals infected with Omicron may result in decreased ability of Delta to re-infect those individuals,\u201d the authors said, adding that the findings are \u201cconsistent with Omicron displacing the Delta variant, since it can elicit immunity which neutralizes making re-infection with Delta less likely.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>If Omicron can displace Delta to become the main variant, that could be big news because Omicron, while more contagious, seems far less likely to land sufferers in the hospital.<\/p>\n<p><em>Joseph Curl has covered politics for 35 years, including 12 years as White House correspondent, and ran the Drudge Report from 2010 to 2015. Send tips to josephcurl@dailywire.com.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>The Daily Wire is one of America\u2019s fastest-growing conservative media companies and counter-cultural outlets for news, opinion, and entertainment. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/subscribe\">member<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A researcher in Cyprus says he\u2019s discovered a cross strain of the coronavirus that combines the Delta and Omicron variants of SARS-CoV-2, which causes COVID-19. Other experts, however, think it\u2019s just a case of cross-contamination. Leondios Kostrikis, professor of biological sciences at the University of Cyprus, has dubbed the new strain \u201cDeltacron,\u201d because of its &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":159,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1204949","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1204949","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/159"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1204949"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1204949\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1204949"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1204949"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1204949"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}