On a grander scale, however, Kerkhove said, “Unfortunately this virus will take opportunities to continue to spread

DR. JANETTE NESHEIWAT: It’s ridiculous. Really. You know you have to take into consideration the words that could potentially be causing and instilling fear in others. Look I think what Boris Johnson has done is perfectly correct. That’s what the United States should be doing. [Queen Elizabeth] likely picked up omicron from her son because it’s extremely contagious. She did what she had to do, she’s triple vaccinated, and her symptoms are mild. You see that the level of positive cases in the community is extremely low and almost gone. We have to scale back our mitigation efforts. We can’t live with masks and mandates forever.

The new vaccine had an efficacy of 75 percent against moderate-to-severe disease. It showed 58 percent efficacy against symptomatic disease in its Phase 3 clinical trial. Although that number is lower than was observed for the mRNA vaccines made by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna in their initial trials, it is “in line with expected vaccine effectiveness in today’s environment dominated by variants of concern,” Sanofi and GSK said in a statement. The number of infections observed in the trial was small, however, and the efficacy may have been lower in a bigger trial.

Used as a booster dose after one of the other available coronavirus vaccines, the Sanofi-GSK shot increased antibody levels by 18- to 30-fold. The companies intend to submit the vaccine for authorization to regulatory authorities in the United States and Europe, they said on Wednesday.

Sanofi and GSK were expected to seek authorization for their vaccine last year, but shelved those plans after clinical trials showed disappointing results in older adults. They then developed a stronger version of the vaccine and tested it in new trials.

In laboratory studies, two doses of the Sanofi-GSK vaccine stimulated the production of more neutralizing antibodies than an approved mRNA vaccine, according to the companies. The data have not yet been published. The vaccine was safe and well-tolerated by adults of all ages, the companies said.

The best target for Covid vaccines is a protein called spike that covers the surface of the virus like a crown. While the mRNA vaccines contain the genetic instructions for making the protein, the Sanofi-GSK vaccine uses a slightly modified version of the protein itself to stimulate an immune response.

This is a commonly used approach for vaccines, and so may convince some people who have been hesitant to adopt the newer mRNA technology. Protein-based vaccines are also relatively inexpensive to manufacture and may not require the ultracold storage needed for the mRNA vaccines. Those features make them more likely candidates for rollout in African nations where vaccine coverage is still very low.

The World Health Organization has confirmed that the new variant, dubbed Deltacron — a combination of Delta and Omicron — has been detected in the France, Denmark and the Netherlands.

“The hybrid genome harbors signature mutations of the two lineages,” said IHU Méditerranée Infection’s Philippe Colson in a study published Tuesday.

While evidence of the new variant has been observed, cases are few. According to Reuters, researchers have identified 17 confirmed instances in both Europe and the United States.

The IHU study also noted that more cases would need to emerge for researchers to be able to effectively detect the severity of the variant.

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In a Wednesday media briefing, WHO COVID-19 technical lead Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove said of Deltacron, “We have not seen any change in the epidemiology with this recombinant. We haven’t seen any change in severity. But there are many studies that are underway.”

She also confirmed the detection of the Deltacron variant, but noted that “there are very low levels of this detection.”

On a grander scale, however, Kerkhove said, “Unfortunately this virus will take opportunities to continue to spread.”

WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus similarly stressed during the briefing, “The virus continues to evolve. And we continue to face major obstacles in distributing vaccines, tests and treatments everywhere they’re needed.”
Meanwhile, researchers at Helix, a lab headquartered in San Mateo, California, found more than 20 positive COVID-19 cases containing material from both Delta and Omicron in samples tested from Nov. 22, 2021, to Feb. 13, 2022, USA Today reported Thursday.

However, “The fact that there is not that much of it, that even the two cases we saw were different, suggests that it’s probably not going to elevate to a variant of concern level,” Helix Chief Science Office William Lee told the outlet, of the two cases they found that specifically contained a combination of genetic material from Delta and Omicron.

As for whether people “need to be concerned,” Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health epidemiologist William Hanage told USA Today no, since Deltacron is “not causing lots of cases.”

“It’s only a variant if it produces a large number of cases,” Hanage said.

As information about the coronavirus pandemic rapidly changes, PEOPLE is committed to providing the most recent data in our coverage. Some of the information in this story may have changed after publication. For the latest on COVID-19, readers are encouraged to use online resources from the CDC, WHO and local public health departments. PEOPLE has partnered with GoFundMe to raise money for the COVID-19 Relief Fund, a GoFundMe.org fundraiser to support everything from frontline responders to families in need, as well as organizations helping communities. For more information or to donate, click here.

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On a grander scale, however, Kerkhove said, “Unfortunately this virus will take opportunities to continue to spread