Sneering at origins of severe cases of rampant new flu variant (8)
I believe the answer is:
scornful
'sneering' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'origins of severe cases of rampant new flu variant' is the wordplay.
'origins of' suggests taking the first letters.
'variant' becomes 'ul' (I can't justify this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
The first letters of 'severe cases of rampant new flu' is 'scornf'.
'scornf'+'ul'='SCORNFUL'
'at' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for scornful that I've seen before include "Showing contempt for" , "Disdainful, contemptuous" , "sneering?" , "Dismissive, contemptuous" , "Contemptuous or derisory" .)