Daily Mail
A new super-variant could be created if Omicron and Delta infect someone at the same time, one of Moderna‘s bosses has warned.
Covid infections normally only involve one mutant strain, but in extremely rare cases two can strike at the same time.
If these also infect the same cell, they may be able to swap DNA and combine to make a new version of the virus.
Dr Paul Burton, the vaccine maker’s chief medical officer, warned the high numbers of Delta and Omicron cases currently circulating in Britain made this more likely.
He told MPs on the Science and Technology Committee that it was ‘certainly’ possible they could swap genes and trigger an even more dangerous variant.
Researchers have warned that these events, scientifically called ‘recombination events’, are possible but they require very specific conditions and the coincidence of mostly uncontrollable events.
Only three Covid strains created by viruses swapping genes have ever been recorded, with the virus instead mostly relying on random mutations to make more variants.
A new variant was not triggered over the two months when the Delta strain was outcompeting Alpha through this method.
Omicron is already dominant in London just two weeks after being spotted in the country, and experts estimate it will be the main strain by the New Year.
