Other scientists claim that Deltacron is just a lab error. Tom Peacock is a virologist at Imperial Department of Infectious Diseases in the U.K. TwitterTo tell the public “when new variants come through sequencing lab contamination isn’t that uncommon (very very tiny volumes of liquid can cause this) — just usually these fairly clearly contaminated sequences are not reported by major media outlets.”
Labs that analyze Omicron and Delta samples may mistakenly show a variant with Omicron and Delta, as though it is a new combination of both strains. Per BloombergKostrikis is now defending his findings by arguing that evidence exists for this new variant in other nations, including Israel.
PeacockHe admits that it would be worthwhile to see if there are more cases, but he still believes it is due to contamination.