Heads Up Folks—This Ain’t Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein
The first subvariant of Omicron, the latest major variant of the novel coronavirus, was bad. BA.1 drove record cases and hospitalizations in many countries starting last fall. Yes. No disagreement there.
The second subvariant, BA.2, was worse in some countries—setting new records for daily cases across China and parts of Europe. So far, we’ve been very, very lucky.
Now BA.1 and BA.2 have had sex and created a third subvariant. XE, as it’s known, is a “recombinant”—the product of two viruses interacting “Frankenstein”-style in a single host.
With its long list of mutations, XE could be the most contagious form of the coronavirus yet. “From the WHO reports, it does appear to have a bit more of an edge in terms of transmissibility,” Stephanie James, the head of a COVID testing lab at Regis University in Colorado, told The Daily Beast.
Mary Shelley would be rolling over in her grave.
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Professor Mike
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It’s ALIVE!!
Just what we need!
I don’t think this will ever be over.