An increasingly common mutation of the coronavirus around the world – but especially in previous episodes of the pandemic – that is more infectious but less deadly could prove our saving grace, says a leading disease expert.
The rise in the prevalence of the D614G mutation in Europe, North America and parts of Asia coincides with a drop in Covid-19 lethal prices, and “Maybe that’s a good thing,” argument Paul Tambyah, senior consultant at the National University of Singapore and president-elect of the International Society of Infectious Diseases.
Tambyah points out that it is the natural evolution for viruses to become less virulent when they mutate, in a bid for longer-term survival – if they kill their hosts too quickly, viruses tend not to last too long in the wild.
“It is in the interest of the virus to infect more people, but not to kill them, because a virus depends on the host for food and shelter,” he said. Tambyah explained.
This particular mutation was discovered as early in the pandemic as February, but scientists could not say at that point which of several mutations would prove the most ‘successful’ virus in terms of survival.
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Fortunately, these mutations are unlikely to affect the effectiveness of future faxes, so we may introduce a new one “New normal” earlier than expected, with vaccines still very important, but the overall lethality of the coronavirus pandemic is declining.
“(The) variants are almost identical and did not change areas that typically recognize our immune system, so there should be no difference for vaccines being developed,” says Sebastian Maurer-Stroh of Singapore’s Agency for Science, Technology and Research.
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