Delta, Lambda – here come the Greeks!

 ‘NOW COME THE GREEK-LETTERED CORONAVIRUS VARIANTS, CAUSING FAR MORE DAMAGE TO SOCIETY THAN ANY GREEK-LETTERED FRATERNITY CAN EVER CAUSE.’

I WAS a barbarian all my life in UP. Was invited a few times to join fraternities, especially when I was in Pol Sci and in Law school, but I always declined. Some of my classmates and batchmates had joined fraternities as early as high school and most have remained happily part of their Greek-letter brotherhoods, able to maximize the vast network being part of a frat provides.

But yes, a few have also found their undoing in the fraternities. Some ended up in the penitentiary for homicide committed during initiation rites, and one very good UP Elem friend even died in Muntinlupa of cancer while serving a life sentence for the death of a neophyte, who happened to be the younger brother of another batchmate.

While my father joined one at the UP College of Medicine, he neither encouraged nor discouraged us from doing so. But I never had the courage to do so, so I chose to rely on the brotherhood of barbarians that has served me well over the years. In some respects it ain’t as strongly bonded as the Greek letter guys, but in other respects, because it’s a brotherhood of friends you selected yourself, you’re spared having to tolerate someone you dislike just because he is a Greek letter fraternity brother.

It was a frat man who told me that in the frat you can find the most valuable brotherhood as well as your most rabid rival, even enemy.

Now come the Greek-lettered coronavirus variants, causing far more damage to society than any Greek-lettered fraternity can ever cause. (Some might disagree?). First, it was Delta – a variant that appeared in India that has turned out to be far more infectious (though not necessarily more deadly) than the original (Aloha) variant that came from China. The Delta variant is not the dominant variant on the new spike of cases in the UK and is also spreading in many other countries, including the United States. Here in the Philippines we were told over and over again by our Health authorities that we have kept Delta out of our shores; today we find out there have been more than 10 known cases already – which means how many really are out there is anyone’s guess.

And then there’s Lambda, which has new mutations of the spike protein that is used to attach to what they call the ACE2 receptors in our cells. Apparently, it has two new spike proteins, one of which is similar to the Delta variant. These spike proteins were the target of the messenger RNA vaccines (Pfizer Biontech and Moderna), which leaves me wondering whether Lambda could therefore escape Pfizer or Moderna-induced antibodies.

That the virus mutates is not surprising; that’s what a virus does (the colds virus is one example) in order to keep on living. But the COVID virus is able to mutate because a whole lot of people remain unvaccinated, while some of those who already are vaccinated with at least one jab are already letting their guard down. Which can be fatal.

Years ago, on campus, one Greek-letter fraternity I know would alert its members of an impending rumble with another fraternity by the blowing of a car horn according to a certain pattern. That would send my classmates from that frat scampering out of our classrooms and out of our building in order to get to safety.

Unfortunately, we don’t have as “efficient” a warning system for the Greek-letter COVID variants that could send us scampering for safety. So this only means that every day, vaccinated or not, we must remain on the highest alert because the “enemy” is out there waiting to pounce on us when it has a chance.

Let’s not get lured into the COVID initiation rites, shall we? I definitely don’t want to go through the process all over again!

Personal: Happy birthday Tatski Oriate; Grace Morales; Diane Cristobal; Rev. Fr. Paul de Leon, Rev. Fr. Mario Holmina, OSJ

https://malaya.com.ph/index.php/news_opinion/delta-lambda-here-come-the-greeks/