US epidemiologist blasts Covid move amid growing Deltacron fears

A high-profile epidemiologist has warned that the new Covid variant is “inevitably surging”, just when we thought the pandemic was behind us.

A US epidemiologist and health economist has warned that Deltacron is “inevitably surging” – just when authorities were beginning to relax.

The comments come as detections of a hybrid variant, containing both the Delta and Omicron strains, grow in the US and Europe.

Scientists believe the mutated “Deltacron” strain emerged from a patient who was infected with both simultaneously.

The new variant, which is also known as BA2, was officially recognised after its genomic sequence was uploaded to the global Covid database by virologists in France last week.

Rapid Covid tests have been used across Australia. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Andrew Henshaw

It is believed to be as transmissible as measles with similar side effects to Omicron.

But the emergence of Deltacron has sparked new fears, with US epidemiologist and health economist Dr Eric Feigl-Ding – a Harvard Medical School graduate – lashing moves from the US government to close testing clinics across the country just as this new threat was rising.

We live in the STUPIDEST timeline—#BA2 is rising and inevitably surging, yet many states close most of their mass testing sites even when public health experts warn it is TERRIBLE HORRIBLE NO GOOD VERY BAD idea. 🤦🏻‍♂️ #CovidIsNotOver

HT @By_CJewetthttps://t.co/jQNSIGbe5Cpic.twitter.com/qVWyiD5OB4

— Eric Feigl-Ding (@DrEricDing) March 20, 2022

“We live in the STUPIDEST timeline —#BA2 is rising and inevitably surging, yet many states close most of their mass testing sites even when public health experts warn it is TERRIBLE HORRIBLE NO GOOD VERY BAD idea,” he wrote on Twitter.

“Testing sites provide health officials with data to anticipate new surges and variants in a way that at-home rapid tests cannot.”

Dr Eric Feigl-Ding. Picture: Twitter

Covid-19 tests at an Australian testing centre. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Ian Currie

Last week, the expert also raised the alarm after Covid was increasingly being detected in wastewater across the US, claiming on Twitter that it “parallels” a similar surge in Europe, and warning that a “#BA2 wave is coming — how soon/big is the question”.

📈SEWER SIGNALS—there is a sharp reversal in wastewater #SARSCoV2–many now rising across the US / plateauing and no longer falling, says CDC data. This parallels surge in Europe, just a few weeks behind. A #BA2 wave is coming—how soon/big is the question🧵 https://t.co/1KhjA16X8Hpic.twitter.com/tLSynFrrcA

— Eric Feigl-Ding (@DrEricDing) March 14, 2022

His comments come just weeks after Australian policy makers considered changes to our own rules. Earlier this month, national cabinet asked the expert health panel to provide urgent health advice on how states could end quarantine for close contacts.

Currently, household close contacts must isolate themselves for seven days from the last time they were in contact with the person with Covid-19.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison also flagged that this upcoming winter would be “challenging” as Australians “learn to live with the virus”.

His comments and the national cabinet decision were made before the Deltacron outbreak was widely known.

Initial analysis of the variant revealed it was similar to the Delta strain, but includes Omicron’s spike protein which increases transmission, sparking early concerns it could combine the more potent Delta with Omicron’s high rate of infectiousness.

“Delta basically grabbed Omicron’s spike protein,” Jeremy Kamil, an associate professor of microbiology and immunology at Louisiana State University, told NBC.

“This is essentially Delta trying to hang on by plagiarising from Omicron. The genomes get a bit acrobatic, and pieces can jump and then recombine together.

“It‘s like if you had 70 printouts of an identical manuscript on your desk and then an office fan turns on and blows things around, and you’re trying to put everything back in order. “Viruses are no different from that.”

Deltacron’s top symptoms

Given that initial Covid symptoms are similar to the flu and the common cold, it has often been difficult to tell whether the onset of headaches, aching pains and a sniffle is actually the virus.

The emergence of new strains make that detection even more difficult, as each variant cannot be specifically identified by at-home test kits.

However, the World Health Organisation has said Deltacron is almost as infectious as measles, and it appears to have similar symptoms to those of Omicron.

A UK government study also recently investigated the top symptoms associated with Covid. The ZOE Covid symptom study found that the illnesses will slightly differ depending on whether you have been vaccinated or not, but that the main symptoms include headaches, runny nose, sneezing, sore throat, loss of smell and persistent cough.