The Coronavirus Is Mutating. What Does That Mean for Us?

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

Just as vaccines begin to offer hope for a path out of the pandemic, officials in Britain on Saturday sounded an urgent alarm about what they called a highly contagious new variant of the coronavirus circulating in England.

Citing the rapid spread of the virus through London and surrounding areas, Prime Minister Boris Johnson imposed the country’s most stringent lockdown since March. “When the virus changes its method of attack, we must change our method of defense,” he said.

In South Africa, a similar version of the virus has emerged, which seems to share some of the mutations seen in the British variant. That virus has been found in 90 percent of the samples whose genetic sequences have been analyzed in South Africa.

Scientists are worried about these variants but not surprised by them. Researchers have recorded thousands of tiny modifications in the genetic material of the coronavirus as it has hopscotched across the world.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/medical/the-coronavirus-is-mutating-what-does-that-mean-for-us/ar-BB1c59I5?ocid=DELLDHP&li=BBnb7Kz

[no_hypocrisy]

1. You know how you can catch the Flu after you've had a flu shot?

Sort of like that. A vaccine is effective for specific strains, not all of them.

[paleotn]

2. Vaccinations every year, just like the flu.

until we figure out ways to beat viral evolution at its own game. Science isn't done developing vaccines for Covid-19 that may prove to be even more effective and longer lived than what we have today. This is just a start.

https://www.labiotech.eu/medical/emergex-covid-19-vaccine/

[Fullduplexxx]

3. Hopefully Mutating into something that cures cancer

[OneGrassRoot]

4. I keep reading that as it mutates...

it may become more contagious but the severity decreases.

Hope that's true.

[ProfessorGAC]

6. That's A "Can Happen"

Not a "will happen".
That said, coronaviruses in the past have done exactly what you describe.
The common cold is an example. Mutated many, many times, so contagious nearly everyone is susceptible, but doesn't kill hardly anybody.
But, unfortunately, that's not a given.

[dutch777]

8. This is generally true BUT....

...you roll the dice each time it mutates. It is true that a virus generally wants to do whatever to infect the maximum number (to continue the virus' ongoing survival in the ecosystem) but not kill them because then they can't be spreaders any longer. BUT, mutations are not that directed, there is just as good a chance that it will mutate into more contagious AND more deadly. The Spanish Flu's mutations in later waves went to more deadly. I am continually flabbergasted that no one in the media picked up on this. Or maybe they and the Faucis of the world didn't want to scare everyone to death. This is the biggest reason we needed to get it contained and killed early by whatever means necessary.

[BGBD]

5. All viruses mutate

and that is generally in ways to increase their likelihood of transmission. They also rarely mutate into something that is more deadly than their initial introduction.

Between vaccination and natural exposure we won't be in a situation with COVID like we are now. It's going to be the 5th endemic human coronavirus, but also the only one we have vaccines for. It's not going to be something we worry about as a public health crisis for much longer than a few more months.

A year and a half is about the lifespan of any particular pandemic before it burns itself out anyway. When this current wave subsides we will be over the worst of it and as vaccinations and exposure induced immunity begins to reach 60 or 70% of the population spread will be greatly reduced.

Now is the time to realize we aren't safe. The odds of a new pandemic happening in 2021 are exactly the same was a new pandemic starting in 2019 were. We need to take the public awareness of it and start planning for the next one now. We need to build the infrastructure to allow economies to continue regardless of our ability to congregate, we need to put together contingencies for what we would do if a worse disease were to occur at higher levels.

A pandemic flu that isn't of the H1 or H3 variety could be much worse than COVID and there are LOTS of them circulating in animals and have showing ability to infect humans, just not to transmit H2H. That's a small jump to just assume will never happen. H7N9 is a particularly scary one that has killed about 40% of people who were infected with it. Luckily the Obama Administration had NIH working on a vaccine was early as 2014, but there are an almost unlimited number of other strains that could cause the next big one.

[DeminPennswoods]

7. The two mRNA vaccines target the "spike" protein

Wouldn't the "spike" protein have to significantly change to thwart the vaccines?

The clinical trials have involved volunteers from all over the world. I'd think there would be mutated versions of covid19 in at least some of the volunteers. Wouldn't it be prudent to sequence the DNA of the volunteers, both vaccinated and given a placebo, to see if the virus is somehow different?

[abqtommy]

9. It means that even with vaccines coming it's not time to stop masking, distancing

or sanitizing. Yet.