the random mutation concept is close to but not exactly the situation. there is a low frequency event that results in mix and match of large regions of sequence. This is very different from error prone replication error, or point mutation.

this occurs when a host is coinfected with two or more viral strands of differing origin. most often virus of close familial lineage do this, but that isnt exclusive.

the mechanism is molecular promiscuity during replication, there is a jump from one strand to another in proximity, thus recombining.

cocirculation is required for this to occur, high frequency of co infection is required for recombinant mutants to occur with predictive certainty.

like the gatekeeper and the keymaster, we should avoid allowing delta, and omicron to contact each other, and surveil the sequences closely.