A man wearing a face mask waits for a train at the Central Train Station during the COVID-19 epidemic in the Swedish capital, Stockholm, on November 3, 2020.
Wei Zhuichao | Xinhua News Agency | Getty Images
LONDON – A global study of more than 12,000 coronavirus mutations has found that none of them appear to have created the virus that causes Covid-19 to spread more rapidly.
Researchers at University College College London evaluated covid mutations in over 1,000,000 samples taken from people in 99 different countries and concluded that they all appeared to be neutral when the spread of the virus accelerated.
A peer-reviewed study published Wednesday in the journal Nature Communications identified a total of 12,706 changes. Of these, 398 species of coronavirus were observed frequently and independently.
The researchers decided to consider 185 mutations that occurred independently at least three times during the epidemic.
“Currently, mutations are mutually neutral and are primarily driven by human immunity through RNA acquisition, rather than being signatures of adaptation,” the researchers said.
“At this stage we have found no evidence for a significantly more transmissible lineage of SARS-COV-2 due to repeated mutations.”
‘Missed opening window’
The results of the study come as drug manufacturers and research centers are scrambling to deliver a safe and effective vaccine to help end the coronavirus epidemic.
British pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca said on Monday that interim analysis showed that the average effectiveness of its coronavirus vaccine was 70%. The news comes with strong results from Pfizer-Bioentech and Moderna regarding the effectiveness of each of their vaccine candidates.
Covid-19 coronavirus molecule, March 24, 2020.
CDC | API | Gamma-rafo by Getty Images
The virus mutates naturally and scientists have previously stated that they have observed small mutations in the coronavirus that have not significantly affected the ability to spread or cause disease.
However, earlier this year, the much-discussed mutant variant of the coronavirus, known as D614G, was thought to increase viral transmission. He met with White House coronavirus adviser Dr. Anthony Fawcett warned that the newly discovered variable would help spread the pathogen more easily.
“Mutations that are fairly common seem neutral to carry the virus. These include the D614G, which according to our analysis has been a lucky ride on a successful descent rather than a transmission driver,” said Professor Francois. Boulex, director of the UCL Genetic Institute and one of the authors of the study.
“The question arises as to whether # SARSCoV2 is so well adapted for transmission in humans. One plausible answer is that we lost the initial window when adapted with humans,” Baloox said via Twitter on Wednesday.
To date, more than 5.5 million people have been infected with the coronavirus, with 1.4 million related deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.
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