Will the coronavirus Delta and Omicron merge into a more ferocious "new poison king"?

While the Omicron variant is worrying people, two new variants of the coronavirus with names very similar to Delta and Omicron have appeared on the Internet. Are they more terrifying new variants of the virus, or are they "Internet virus variants that exist to attract attention"?

Written by | Xiaoye

At the beginning of 2022, the Omicron variant of the new coronavirus, which is more transmissible and more secretive, continues to spread around the world, bringing more uncertainty to the epidemic prevention work of various countries in the new year. According to the weekly epidemiological report released by the World Health Organization on January 11, Omicron is rapidly replacing other virus variants and becoming the main epidemic strain. European and American countries have almost completely fallen, and the United States has set a record of 1.4 million new infections in a single day; in my country, as of January 15, 14 provinces have reported imported cases of Omicron, and six provinces and cities including Zhuhai, Guangdong, Zhongshan, Guangdong, Tianjin, Dalian, Liaoning, Anyang, Henan, and Shanghai have reported local Omicron epidemics. my country faces the dual challenges of imported epidemics of Delta and Omicron strains [1].

However, while the Omicron variant was worrying people, two "new variants of the coronavirus" with names very similar to Delta and Omicron appeared on the Internet. Are they more terrifying new variants of the virus, or "Internet virus variants that exist to attract attention"?

1 Delmicron in India and Deltacron in Cyprus

On Christmas Eve last year, Dr. Shashank Joshi, a member of India’s COVID-19 task force, said at a local news briefing: “Delmicron, a twin strain of the Delta and Omicron variant, has set off a mini tsunami of infections in Europe and the United States.” The media, which is good at catching keywords, immediately found the key word in this sentence, “Delmicron” [2]. Within a few days, this new word appeared in the headlines of various Indian media reports on COVID-19, and was paired with words such as “super strain” and “new variant”, suggesting that these two highly contagious strains have merged into one. Throughout the article, there is neither substantial scientific evidence nor authoritative proof from the World Health Organization. However, for ordinary readers who do not have professional knowledge and are suffering from the epidemic, just reading the title can trigger a stronger sense of panic.

A December 28 online media report about delmicron title[3]

Not long after, the media began to refute the rumor, pointing out that Dr. Joshi's original words were misinterpreted. He originally wanted to use the word "Delmicron" to express the situation that the Delta variant and the Omicron variant were prevalent at the same time, causing a sharp increase in the number of patients infected with the new coronavirus [4]. However, he did not expect that the media would create a non-existent "Delmicron new variant" out of thin air, causing panic for no reason and making epidemic prevention even more difficult. After all, India's new crown epidemic has never been optimistic. According to statistics from the Indian government report, as of the end of 2021, India's new crown death case was about 480,000, that is, 340 people died from new crown infection per million people. A study recently published in the journal Science [5] pointed out that the actual number of deaths from the new crown may reach 3 million, which is 6 to 7 times the official report.

The "Delmicron" incident has not yet completely subsided, and "Deltacron" is here again. On January 8, 2022, the Cyprus Mail took the lead in publishing a report titled "Coronavirus: New variant discovered in Cyprus" [6]. The country's Minister of Health Michalis Hadjipantelas announced that a scientific team from the Biotechnology and Molecular Virology Lab, University of Cyprus, had identified a new coronavirus variant in samples from 25 people in the virus transmission community. Dr. Leontios Kostrikis, who led the team, named it "Deltacron" because it has the same genetic background as the Delta variant and also has several of the same mutations as the Omicron variant (see figure below); Deltacron has not yet been reported in other parts of the world, and the team has uploaded its genome sequencing information to GISAID (but the specific sequencing data cannot be found on GISAID).

Comparison of mutations in the spike protein region (S1 and S2) of five new coronavirus variants. The Cyprus variant contains many common pathogenic mutations of the Delta and Omicron strains. [7]

On the same day, the report and the name of the new variant were quickly adopted by Bloomberg, and then many media outlets quickly focused on "Deltacron". At first glance, it seemed that the two pandemic strains had recombined into one. Dr. Tom Peacock, a virologist at Imperial College London, noticed this and immediately posted a tweet questioning Deltacron. From a professional perspective, first of all, "it is unlikely that a true virus recombinant will appear within a few weeks or even months of the co-transmission of the two strains. After all, the global spread of the Omicron variant has only been a matter of the past month, so I highly doubt that any so-called recombinant exists..." Secondly, "many Omicron sequence reports carry Delta-like mutations, such as P681R or L452R. Although recombination may be real, most of them are often laboratory sample contamination or co-infection." "To identify the Deltacron variant, it is necessary to independently detect the exact same recombinant in multiple sequencing laboratories." [8]

Dr. Tom Peacock speculated that the so-called Deltacron was most likely the result of laboratory sample contamination.[9]

In response, Dr. Leontios Kostrikis strongly defended his findings, saying that the infection rate of the Deltacron variant in hospitalized patients was higher than that in non-hospitalized individuals, so the contamination hypothesis was unlikely to be true, and that multiple sequencing processes in multiple countries had identified the strain in the samples as the Deltacron variant, so it was unlikely that their laboratory error was true. [10]

While the media focused on "Deltacron", the scientific community seemed quite calm. Dr. William Schaffner of Vanderbilt University Medical Center in the United States believed that further regional epidemiological investigations were needed in Cyprus to use more data to verify whether "Deltacron" was a recombinant strain of delta and omicron or the product of a laboratory accident. [10]

Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove, an infectious disease expert at the World Health Organization, called on Twitter not to use words like "deltacron" (see the picture below), which imply virus/variant fusion and recombination, but this is not the case. She also speculated that the so-called "deltacron" may be a variant strain formed by sample contamination during the sequencing process. [11]

2 How are the new coronavirus variants named?

Whether it is "delmicron" or "deltacron", they all came from the mouth of an individual and were later widely publicized by the media, but in the field of public health, the World Health Organization has a set of neutral standards to name the new coronavirus variants.

Since the emergence of various new variants of the new coronavirus, the academic community has been using a system established by GISAID (Global Initiative on Sharing Influenza Data), Nextstrain and Pango to name and track the genetic lineage of the new coronavirus. This system is extremely advantageous for professionals, making it easy to trace the origin from a genetic perspective and understand the various characteristics of the virus. For example, the Pango lineage name of Omicron is B.1.1.529. But for the media and the public, a string of numbers is not only inconvenient to remember, but also prone to errors. Out of habit, people like to call the virus by the place name or country name where the variant was first discovered, or merge existing virus names, but this can easily lead to stigmatization and cause unnecessary controversy and discrimination. Therefore, on May 31, 2021, the World Health Organization announced that the new coronavirus variants would be named with Greek letters, and the final name would be announced on the official website, encouraging governments, media organizations and other organizations to adopt it. Next, the familiar Alpha, Beta, Delta, and the latest Omicron appeared.

In addition, WHO has classified specific variants that pose a greater risk to global public health into "Variant of Concern" (VOC) and "Variant of Interest" (VOI) for qualitative purposes in order to determine the priority of virus monitoring and research. "Variant of Concern" refers to strains that have been proven to have one or more of the following changes at the global public health level: ① increased transmissibility or harmful epidemiological changes; ② increased toxicity or changes in pathogenic clinical manifestations; ③ reduced effectiveness of public health and social measures or existing diagnostic methods, vaccines, and treatments. [12]

List of VOC and VOI on the WHO official website[12]

Once monitoring agencies and scientists in various countries detect a new virus variant that has not been reported, they should upload the virus genome sequencing information to a public database and report it to the WHO. After evaluation and review by the WHO expert group, the risk level of the virus to public health will be determined. The WHO will then officially announce specific information, including the name, to alert countries and take corresponding epidemic intervention measures. For details, please refer to omicron’s complete process from discovery to confirmation. For readers, when they see the so-called “new variant” name and information given in the media headlines, the WHO has also provided a simple process on its official website to distinguish the authenticity of epidemic information [13], to help everyone not be misled by false reports:

In summary, based on the existing information, "Delmicron" is purely a misuse by the media, and "Deltacron" neither meets the naming standards of the WHO nor is it currently included in the list of high-risk VOC variants. Its biological properties, transmission ability, toxicity, etc. still need to be verified by more detailed data.

3 How to deal with Omicron?

While "Deltacron" is spreading wildly in the online world, the Omicron variant is sweeping the real world. After New Year's Day, Europe, which had faced Omicron as a formidable enemy before the New Year, was the first to change its attitude. Especially in the UK, France, Spain and other countries, most of the symptoms of Omicron infected people are not particularly serious, and people believe that the epidemic is either approaching a turning point or has passed the turning point. Therefore, the government and some public health experts are working hard to promote a bold new approach to fighting the new crown epidemic (jokingly called "lying flat"), trying to make this epidemic gradually become part of daily life.

After the outbreak in December last year, the UK has reached a turning point. Although hospitalization rates in some areas remain high, the number of new cases reported nationwide on January 14 was more than 80,000 fewer than the number of new cases on the same day a week ago. As a result, some politicians have declared the latest wave of the epidemic over, while others have advocated a gradual return to normal life. At the same time, many public health experts and scientists are also debating whether to end the blockade and switch to ordinary intervention measures, but most experts still encourage the public to wear masks in public places and set ventilation standards.

As for whether the epidemic can be eradicated, Graham Medley, professor of infectious disease modeling at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, believes that since the virus has spread to its current extent, it is difficult to completely eradicate it again. Based on this view, "the new coronavirus epidemic may become endemic, but this does not mean that the situation will definitely get better." [14]

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez recently announced that the public "must learn to coexist with the virus, just like many other viruses." Spain will also adjust its national epidemic prevention strategy, which may be more similar to the response measures for dealing with influenza outbreaks. French Health Minister Olivier Véran said that although France currently has a high infection rate, it is also approaching its peak and is about to reach a turning point, and the high vaccination rate of the whole population "may" mean that this will be the last wave of the epidemic.

In the face of Europe's optimism, the WHO has remained cautious, warning against treating the coronavirus as a seasonal flu virus, and that it is too early to draw these conclusions since the pandemic is not endemic at the moment. There are still too many unknowns about Covid-19 and the coronavirus. Moreover, in Africa, Omicron is still advancing rapidly, with the number of confirmed cases still surging. In addition, from a global perspective, vaccination is not widely available, and most of the world's population is still quite vulnerable to the virus. Finally, we must remember not to underestimate the mutation ability of the coronavirus.

Zhang Wenhong, director of the infectious disease department at Huashan Hospital affiliated to Fudan University, also said at a scientific forum that the Omicron variant currently exhibits different characteristics in different countries, and that the view that Omicron is a "large-scale flu" has no scientific basis. He has studied the medical images of Omicron-infected people and said that this variant "will bite people." A country or region needs a strong immune barrier and medical resources to resist its threat. [15]

However, Dr. Zhang also said: "I still have great confidence that the new crown epidemic will end by the end of this year." "This (may) be the last cold winter of the new crown epidemic."

References

[1] https://china.huanqiu.com/article/46PeXiqyG1S

[2] https://www.firstpost.com/health/what-is-delmicron-how-is-it-different-from-omicron-all-your-questions-answered-10230481.html

[3] https://www.financialexpress.com/lifestyle/health/what-exactly-is-delmicron-scientists-warn-of-super-strain-heres-all-about-its-origin-mutation-etc/2389547/

[4] https://www.indiatoday.in/india-today-insight/story/the-delmicron-outbreak-why-we-should-worry-1892877-2021-12-27

[5] https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abm5154

[6] https://cyprus-mail.com/2022/01/08/coronavirus-new-variant-discovered-in-cyprus/

[7] https://doi.org/10.1002/mco2.110

[8] https://cyprus-mail.com/2022/01/09/coronavirus-cyprus-deltacron-could-just-be-contamination-imperial-college-virologist-says/

[9] https://twitter.com/PeacockFlu?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor

[10] https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/deltacron-new-variant-or-laboratory-error#Findings-defended

[11] https://twitter.com/mvankerkhove?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor

[12] https://www.who.int/activities/tracking-SARS-CoV-2-variants/tracking-SARS-CoV-2-variants

[13] https://www.who.int/zh/news-room/spotlight/let-s-flatten-the-infodemic-curve

[14] https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/14/world/europe/uk-omicron-coronavirus-pandemic.html

[15] https://news.sina.com.cn/c/2022-01-08/doc-ikyamrmz3928398.shtml

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