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DOCTORS may be fretting about concurrent outbreaks of flu and covid-19 (see “What will happen to covid-19 cases in winter and how can we prepare?”) but some virologists are worrying about another scenario: a Frankenvirus.
SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes covid-19, almost certainly originated from the hybridisation of two different coronaviruses. The details remain hazy, but the virus’s genome sequence suggests that this mash-up occurred in a bat about a decade ago. The bat was simultaneously infected …