scariant
nounEtymology Blend of scare + variant.
1
Informal An unconfirmed or unstudied variant or strain of COVID-19 that causes widespread panic.
- Public health officials derided the X-MPLE strain as a "scariant" last night.
- Initial reactions have been sceptical at best, with prominent experts suggesting the apparent new strain looks more like a “scariant” – an unconfirmed strain causing a global scare – than a variant.2022 January 11, Aude Mazoue, “Covid variant or ‘scariant’? Experts warn a future ‘Deltacron’ is possible”, in France24: