RE: Innate immunity and interferon in SARS-CoV-2 infection outcome3 Aug 2023 13:25
It's a Delta mutation Alkin - rather than a new variant. Happened several times before in the pandemic when an immuno-compromised patient is unable to shed the virus and it mutates, usually after a secondary infection with another variant.
Dangerous of course as this is likely the way all new VOCs start life - but in this case more likely to be a medical anomally that never leaves the single very sick patient or the room he/she is being treated in.
As things stand, with Omicron still reigning supreme almost 2 years after emerging in SA - any new variant would have to be more deadly AND more infectious to upset the general trend and throw the world back into turmoil. If it was going to happen the time for this would have been in the Chinese outbreak in the spring of 22 - when conditions were at their most propitious.
And the secondary part to this - is that the Synairgen sp is now only loosely connected to Covid. The only scenario in which SNG's sp might change fundamentally without new data would be if a new variant evaded all prior immunity & current vaccines, returning us to Year Zero, and making the SGO16 data suddenly relevant again.