haxxiy on 18 December 2021
While recombination is theoretically possible, it must be said that Omicron and Delta are still almost 100% alike except for their spike protein, and both variants' success depends on a series of synergistic interactions (epistasis).
Even if the split happened exactly in the middle of the receptor-binding motif, to make it as antigenically relevant as possible, you'd likely end up with a recombinant virus with less immune escape but carrying a series of deleterious mutations to itself compared to the original strains.
