There may be a new COVID variant, Deltacron. Here's what we know about it.

[Imallin4Joe]

Source: USA Today

A potential new COVID-19 variant, a combination of the delta and omicron variants – you can call it "deltacron" – has been identified.

The World Health Organization said Wednesday that the new COVID-19 combination has been detected in France, the Netherlands and Denmark. It's also been found in the U.S., according to a new report soon to be published on research site MedRxiv, and viewed by USA TODAY.

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Experts say it's too soon to worry about deltacron. Compared with earlier variants, such as delta and omicron, this new variation – researchers have not adopted the "deltacron" name officially – appears unlikely to spread as easily, said William Lee, the chief science officer at Helix.

Read more: https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/medical/there-may-be-a-new-covid-variant-deltacron-here-s-what-we-know-about-it/ar-AAUSuZi?li=BBorjTa

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Happy to be triple vaxxed here.

[hlthe2b]

1. Me too. That said...

the "nicknames" for these variants are beginning to sound like an old ad for 20th-century synthetic fibers (dacron, polyester, olefin, lycra, cordura...)

[Javaman]

7. personally, I'm a rayon covid type of guy. LOL nt

[Orrex]

2. Can't wait to hear that "nObOdY cOuLd HaVe PrEdIcTeD tHiS vArIaNt"

[AngryOldDem]

3. With the accompanying "the vaccines don't work".

Just like the flu, this will mutate. I hope at some point they recommend a routine COVID shot like they do a yearly flu shot.

Triple-vaxxed here, and glad of it.

[Orrex]

6. Likewise 3X vaxed here

Last edited Thu Mar 10, 2022, 05:22 PM - Edit history (1)

I confess that I’m frustrated on at least two points: we have a cult of antivax happily ignoring common sense and basic human decency, and we have governmental and corporate entities pushing for a fully reopened in-person economy.

And each time a new variant surfaces, each side insists that its position has been re-justified.

[BumRushDaShow]

24. "Likewise 3X faxed here"

(Sorry I had to... )

I am 3x Moderna. Next week will actually be my one year anniversary for my first dose.

[Orrex]

26. LOL! I blame my iPad

Worst autocorrect of any device I’ve used in more than a decade.

[BumRushDaShow]

27. Both the iPad and iPhone do the same damn auto-correct word massacres

I am constantly doing this -

(for example, they always want to change "were" into "we're" )

[Orrex]

38. YES!!!

And one quirk that bugs the shit out of me (that, admittedly, might be possible to undo in settings) is when I accidentally capitalize a letter and I backspace to correct it, my helpful iPad auto-capitalizes the new letter for me. Stellar!

I am told that people love their iPads. As far as I can discern, the only advantage it has over my significantly cheaper laptop is that i could skip it farther across a lake.

[BumRushDaShow]

48. Even more bizarre

is that it keeps insisting on putting a period ( " . " ) after an emoji if I have it at the end of a sentence (even if the sentence already had a period)!!!

I have to keep backspacing over the damn period to get rid of it. Why does it try to punctuate an emoji???? I know some younger generations use emojis as "language" but FFS.

[sheshe2]

46. Goddess forbid...

You have the TV on in the background. It picks that up.

[tavernier]

41. My iPhone autocorrect is often drunk.

Only a drunk could come up with some of those word combinations.

[wnylib]

16. Also triple vaxed here, but the booster

diminishes in effectiveness around 4 months after getting it. I am now at the 4 month mark.

[I_UndergroundPanther]

35. I am almost at my 6 month mark

Are we supposed to get revaxxed in 6 months or not? Can you get another booster if you have diabeties am I even eligible to get another booster?

[wnylib]

37. I don't know. Might be possible

for vulnerable people, like those with diabetes, to get another booster. There was talk a while ago about a second booster, but I don't know what decision was made, if any.

Pfizer and Moderna were working on a vaccine specific to omicron but I don't know if they still are since omicron infections are declining. OTOH, there is an omicron variant now and also a combination omicron and delta mix, so maybe it is worth it to those companies to continue making an omicron vaccine.

I also read something somewhere about possibly another booster in the fall, but don't know if that is definite.

You could check with your doctor. They usually keep up with these things.

[I_UndergroundPanther]

39. Thank you

I'll keep wearing my mask tho.

[wnylib]

40. Same here. Nobody around here is wearing

a mask any more, except me, and I get stares for still wearing mine, but I have no intention of giving it up in the near future. I still use hand sanitizer after leaving public places, wash my hands as soon as I get home, etc.

[Auggie]

4. Still wearing a mask, thank you

[Evolve Dammit]

12. Yesiree!

[Totally Tunsie]

19. Same here, but I was dismayed to see zero mask usage

among market customers on Tuesday, although Staff were still wearing them. Makes social distancing all the more important these days.

[Chakaconcarne]

5. There was another variant fresh on the heels of Omicron... That seemed to fizzle out.

Hopefully the same with this one.

[JudyM]

13. Not fizzled out, just more stealth...

A recent article: CDC warns of alarming surge in Covid Omicron sub-variant in New York City as mandates lifted https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/ba2-omicron-variant-new-york-b2031743.html

NE Journal of Med had a report yesterday that a couple of monoclonal antibodies work against it in lab studies though a much high titer is required. Data is still out on whether/how much vaccines help, though it appears that having had Omicron recently reduces susceptibility.

[pandr32]

18. Cases doubling each week

Spring break is coming.

[JudyM]

23. Right, there's that, too. Unfortunately there's some likelihood that many folks will be surprised.

[pandr32]

29. By now we should be wary

You know--all that stuff we've heard about the value of experience

It seems there is a stampede back to blissful ignorance without the blissful.

[hueymahl]

8. Acting more and more like the flu

To be expected as the covid pandemic evolves to a mere covid endimic. Would be surprised if we see any real serious variants again, except rarely (again, like the flu).

[Blues Heron]

32. Flu is a winter bug - this is a bug for all seasons unlike the flu

When was the last summer flu outbreak? That talking point has been debunked.

[elias7]

49. Surprised if we see any real serious variants again? Based on what?

Don’t mean to be contentious, but as an ED physician experiencing yet another lull and waiting for the next surge, what gives you the epidemiological certainty to claim that the pandemic is essentially over?

[Warpy]

9. Double vaxxed, had the original disease

plus 3 days of breakthrough in December. If I don't have antibodies, I'll never have them.

This one will likely be far less serious overall, but if it doesn't spread easily, it could be more virulent, causing worse disease and higher death rates. We don't know that for certain, it might just be mutating away from infecting people.

The most successful bugs are highly contagious and don't kill their hosts, replicating and moving on quickly.

[Karma13612]

10. I am expecting that starting this fall,

We will be encouraged to get our flu vax and updated COVID vax. I hope SOMEday, they can combine them into one annual shot.

We shall see.

[AngryOldDem]

15. +1

That would be great.

[Totally Tunsie]

20. While I think the annual COVID shot will become reality,

I think it's more likely it'll be a stand-alone, rather than combined with the flu vaccine. In any event, I'd certainly get both annually.

[I_UndergroundPanther]

36. However

Getting shingrix and the
Flu shot at the same time was a bit nasty the muscle aches were pretty rough.

I thought I got flu with the covid shot,my memory sucks sometimes.

[Totally Tunsie]

44. If it comes to the point where we have annual flu and COVID shots,

personally I wouldn't get them at the same time. I tend to react to shots of this type and that would be overload for me.

Shingrix was a real knockout for me - I think there were about three days of discomfort and major fatigue. You must have been hurting after having the flu shot at the same time...whew!

[I_UndergroundPanther]

45. Dont want to do anything that dumb again .

Regarding vaccines. Flu by itself from now on.

[Totally Tunsie]

47. I agree. Good policy. n/t

[BumRushDaShow]

30. "I hope SOMEday, they can combine them into one annual shot. "

Several companies were working on trials for doing just that - either a mRNA COVID-19 vaccine in combo with a regular flu vaccine or both COVID-19 and flu as mRNA.

A universal flu vaccine may be the next big mRNA breakthrough for Moderna, Pfizer

Published Mon, Jan 10 202210:28 AM EST Updated Mon, Jan 10 20228:21 PM EST
Bob Woods


The research and development that led to the Covid-19 vaccines have boosted efforts to find a more powerful, longer-lasting flu vaccine, perhaps taking steps towards virologists’ holy grail: a one-time, universal flu jab. Scientists at Pfizer and Moderna, the pharmaceutical companies that harnessed a half-century of research into mRNA technology to create Covid vaccines, are using that same know-how in exploring ways to inoculate the masses from the flu. “As demonstrated through the COVID-19 vaccine, mRNA vaccines offer…the potential to manufacture higher potency flu vaccines more rapidly than contemporary flu vaccines,” Pirada Suphaphiphat, vice president of viral vaccine research at New York City-based Pfizer, told CNBC by email. “The pandemic allowed us to deliver on the immense scientific opportunity of mRNA.”

(snip)

“mRNA is a platform,” Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel said of broader vaccine ambitions on CNBC’s Squawk Box on Monday. “mRNA is an information molecule and so we have now forty-four zero programs that are in development and actually many more in the labs.” With a focus on respiratory disease, Bancel said there are around 10 viruses that lead to hospitalizations every year. “Flu, of course, is very well known but RSV, and many other viruses that are not very well known to the public because the symptoms are similar to flu where we believe the world deserves the single annual booster that contains all those different vaccines in a single dose against flu, against RSV, against Covid with the right adaptation to the strains circulating that’s here, and that’s what we’re working towards,” he said.

Moderna has a RSV program and a flu program in trials and “we’re working very quickly to combine this,” Bancel said. “The way I think about it, it’s a bit like you’ll get an annual upgrade of a product by adding more vaccine in the same vial. So, you’ll get an adaptation for the current strains of that year in your geography, so in the U.S., or in Europe, or in Japan because as we see a lot of winters, the flu vaccine are perceived not to work because we are actually different strains circulating around the world.”

In September, Pfizer announced the beginning of a phase 1 human trial of an mRNA flu vaccine for adults, marking the drug maker’s first mRNA-based flu program. It is a so-called quadrivalent vaccine, like those administered to the public today, targeting four different flu variants. In December, Moderna announced the first positive interim data from a phase 1 study of its quadrivalent seasonal flu vaccine candidate, called mRNA-1010, in older and younger adults. The company also announced that the phase 2 study of mRNA-1010 is now fully enrolled, and preparation for the phase 3 study is underway. While generally encouraging, the findings nonetheless showed that Moderna’s mRNA-based flu vaccine was no more efficacious in older adults than already-approved shots on the market, in particular Sanofi’s Fluzone HD.

(snip)

https://www.cnbc.com/2022/01/10/universal-flu-vaccine-may-be-next-big-moderna-pfizer-mrna-development.html

For example (on the "both being mRNA" front) -

Biotech and Pharma

Moderna Targets Fall 2023 for Covid-Flu Combo Vaccine

By Jack Denton
Jan. 17, 2022 9:04 am ET



Moderna hopes to launch an approved version of its combination Covid-19 and flu vaccine by fall 2023, the CEO of the biotech company said Monday. Stéphane Bancel said Moderna (ticker: MRNA), one of the leading makers of Covid-19 vaccines, was aiming to get its combo Covid-19 vaccine available in multiple countries in the next 18 months or so.

Along with immunizing people against Covid-19 and the flu, the jab also would target respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), which is a common virus that typically causes cold-like symptoms.“Our goal is to be able to have a single annual booster, so that we don’t have compliance issues where people don’t want to get two to three shots a winter, but to get one dose where they get a booster for Corona and a booster for flu and RSV,” Bancel said.

In a best-case scenario, Bancel said, the vaccine would be available in some countries by the fall of 2023. Moderna, like the Pfizer (PFE) and BioNTech (BNTX) partnership, developed a Covid-19 vaccine using advanced messenger RNA (mRNA) drug technology, which is different from the technology underpinning conventional vaccines.

The company — and its shareholders — hope for future growth from more mRNA vaccines, like that for the common flu. But data from a Phase 1 study of its mRNA flu shot disappointed investors in December, and Bancel has since moved to reset expectations about the vaccine.

(snip)

https://www.barrons.com/articles/moderna-covid-flu-combination-vaccine-booster-51642428226

[Karma13612]

42. ✅ sounds promising! Nt

[IronLionZion]

11. Since mask mandates are dropped everywhere

I hope our vaccines hold up against it. The article says it doesn't spread as fast as Omicron.

[ffr]

14. "Happy to be triple vaxxed here."

Us too!

Thanks Joe Biden. You saved our lives!

[CaptainTruth]

17. Then there's moronacron...

...the variant that only affects folks who think ivermectin is a cure for COVID.

[GoneOffShore]

21. Happy to be triple vaxxed. The variant hasn't shown up on my Covid App yet.

[Juneboarder]

22. I'll be in the Netherlands in 2 weeks

This should be interesting to see how this plays out.

[milestogo]

25. Sounds like Delta and Omicron got together and made Deltacron.

[LisaL]

31. That's exactly what happened.

NT

[Akoto]

28. Am I the only one so tired of it, I just don't care about the variants?

I mean, I get my vacciations (got all three so far, happy to get more), and I still wear my mask and meticulously wash my hands. When I return home from anywhere crowded, I shower and change clothes. That is tedium enough.

This stuff legitimately terrifies some people. My poor mom is horribly afraid of COVID and she has her eyes glued on the death counts, variants, etc. As if she didn't have enough in life to worry about!

[Blues Heron]

33. Most people dont really want long covid or shredded lungs etc. brain damage, whatever

So they follow it closely. Knowledge is power. Its to be expected with something like this.

[riversedge]

34. I still wear a mask. Avoid shopping as much as possible.

[BobTheSubgenius]

43. Triple-vaxxed here, too.

I've also laid in a good supply of Ivermectin and pool cleaner, just to be sure.