UK and California Covid variants have merged into mutated virus say scientists sparking fears of new pandemic

UK and California Covid variants have merged into a mutated virus, scientists fear. The apparent discovery in a US virus sample has sparked fears the pandemic may be entering a new phase. It’s not known yet how dangerous the strain that scientists believe they may have found is. The “recombination” event was discovered in California’s […]

UK and California Covid variants have merged into a mutated virus, scientists fear.

The apparent discovery in a US virus sample has sparked fears the pandemic may be entering a new phase.

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UK and California Covid variants have merged into a mutated virus, scientists fear.[/caption]

It’s not known yet how dangerous the strain that scientists believe they may have found is.

The “recombination” event was discovered in California’s Los Alamos National Laboratory, New Scientist reports.

Recombination can bring together multiple mutations in. Most of the time, these don’t confer any advantage to the virus, but occasionally they do.

If confirmed, the recombinant would be the first detected in the pandemic.

Bette Korber, a computational biologist at the laboratory, told a meeting held by the New York Academy of Science she had seen “pretty clear” evidence of it.

Recombination can lead to new, more deadly dangerous variants, but it’s not clear how much of a threat this first recombination event may pose.

The emergence of new Covid variants recently has meant some people could be infected with two different variants at once.

Dr Marcus Blagrove, a virologist from the University of Liverpool, UK, has said: “We want to know where the next coronavirus might come from.

“One way they’re generated is through recombination between two existing coronaviruses – so two viruses infect the same cell and they recombine into a ‘daughter’ virus that would be an entirely new strain.”