A person walks past a mural of medical workers in Mérida, Mexico, in February Artur Widak/NurPhoto via Getty Images
The recombinant “deltacron” variant of the coronavirus has left many people unsure about the future of the pandemic, amid fears it could combine the delta variant’s virulence with omicron’s transmissibility. Recombination, which is essentially the viral version of sex, occurs when a single cell is simultaneously infected with two related viruses, whose genetic material could mix as they replicate.
Dozens of potential recombinant SARS-CoV-2 variants have been identified in recent weeks. So, why are these emerging and how…
