Thanks to Dragon Ball, everyone knows that when people do the fusion dance, they increase their power levels in an incredible way.
Now two coronavirus variants have performed the fusion dance, and experts speculate that it may result in vaccines no longer being effective.
A hybrid version of the coronavirus has surfaced in California after the British Kent variant and a strain found in the US merged together inside an infected person.
The variant, not yet named, has only been spotted once but scientists fear there are likely to be more cases.
Experts are worried because it carries mutations which appear to make it able to spread faster and also to slip past some of the immunity made from past infections or vaccines.
It was formed from the Kent Covid variant – known scientifically as B.1.1.7 – and a Californian variant called B.1.429.
Scientists in the US claim they merged in a ‘recombination event’, the New Scientist reports. This happens when two different versions of the virus infect the same cell and then swap genes while they are reproducing, giving rise to a new variant.
Researchers have warned in the past that these events are possible but said they are ‘unlikely’ because they require very specific conditions and the coincidence of mostly uncontrollable events. They are more likely to happen during huge outbreaks.
It’s implied that vaccination campaigns are like playing whack-a-mole with coronavirus variants.
People will go into lockdown, get vaccinated, then go back into lockdown again to wait for a new vaccine “because of a new strain that dodges immunity” or whatever.