Moderna’s chief medical officer has warned that the Delta and Omicron variants of COVID-19 could combine to create a ‘monster’ virus.
Here we go again.
Paul Burton made the comments while addressing the House of Commons Technologies and Science Committee members on Tuesday.
Burton claimed that it was possible for someone to contract both variants at the same time, which “certainly gives an opportunity for the two viruses to, what we call, recombinate,” meaning they could begin to “share genes and to swap genes over.”
This could “certainly” lead to worse COVID-19 symptoms than usual, according to Burton, who added that “it is really important to think about it” given the rapid spread of Omicron.
Aleksandr Semyonov, head of Russia’s Vector virology research center, said that although it would be a “rather rare phenomenon,” a potential Delta-Omicron combination is still possible.
I’m sure the solution to any future variant or ‘monster virus’ will be more restrictions, more lockdowns and yet more vaccines.
And Moderna will be handily placed to take advantage of that.
As we previously highlighted, Moderna’s Stephane Bancel said that even younger people will have to get vaccine booster shots at least once every three years.
When comedian Trevor Noah recently questioned whether the CEO of Moderna had a conflict of interest in calling for new vaccines to fight Omicron, he was attacked as an “anti-vaxxer” by his own fans.
