The world has gone mad. They may have unwittingly prepared the scenario for a MERS recombinant with SARS-CoV2.

MERS (Middle Eastern Respiratory Syndrome) has a Case Fatality rate (CFR)/ Death Rate of around 40%, but is not highly transmissible between humans, definitely not like the SARS-CoV2 coronavirus.

MERS is a zoonotic virus that is usually transmitted from camels to humans. Guess what. They had a beauty pageant at the Qatar World Soccer Cup with camels. FFS.

It appears that at least 3 French players may have contracted MERS.

Kingsley Coman is third French player to fall ill ahead of World Cup final

I raised concern that as we are running around pretending covid is just a flu we may easily get a person who is simultaneously infected with MERS and SARS-Cov2, and since the two virus are of the same coronavirus family they can recombine inside a human. This may result in a recombinant variant that has a much higher death rate than Omicron (currently a low 0.15%) and which is also much more contagious than MERS.

I have been expressing concern about this over the last few days. Others are now expressing concern too, and it may be a reality that we might have a new horrible pandemic with has a huge death rate.

Get Ready for MERS-CoV-2

How do SARS and MERS compare with COVID-19?

You will find some good references (published papers) that show that MERS and SARS-CoV2 can recombine in my facebook group. Search for MERS.

Everything you need to know about Covid19 & other infectious diseases