Yasmina Kattou, edited by Ugo Pascolo
, modified at
11:11 am, January 11, 2022
In Cyprus, a biologist claims to have found a new variant: “Deltacron”, a combination of Delta and Omicron. Leonidios Kostrikis head of the biotechnology and molecular virology laboratory and professor at the University of Cyprus says 25 cases have been identified, including 11 hospitalized. But several scientists have expressed their doubts about the emergence of such a variant.
Two variants which form a third. In any case, this is the hypothesis defended by Leonidios Kostrikis, head of the Laboratory of Biotechnology and Molecular Virology and professor at the University of Cyprus, and author of the “discovery”. This scientist claims that the Delta and Omicron variants gave rise to a third: Deltacron. 25 cases have been identified, according to the latter, including 11 hospitalized. But doubt remains within part of the scientific community on the possible existence of this new variant of Covid-19.
A hypothesis far from unanimous
While a combination of two variants to form one is entirely plausible, Deltacron’s analyzes published on an international data-sharing platform would not show a combination of the two variants. “The hypothesis of having to deal with a recombinant variant is null”, slice even at the microphone of Europe 1 Bruno Lina, member of the Scientific Council. For him, there is no variant, but accidental contamination.
“Today, most laboratories are sequencing both Omicron and Delta. And since we are doing several hundred patients in parallel, we can have at some point, when handling these samples, the risk of having a small little of the virus from one patient passing into the cup of another, ”he explains. A “fairly frequent” situation which obviously gives distorted analysis results.
Accidental contamination?
The 25 cases detected in Cyprus could therefore have all been sequenced at the same time in the same laboratory. But that’s not all: according to the English virologist Tom Peacock, who looked into the question, Delta and Omicron would have to circulate at the same time for several months to give birth to a new variant. However, Omicron has only been in circulation for a few weeks in Cyprus.