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The hypothesis was already released this spring.
Now, new findings confirm the theory that a mutation in the coronavirus helped make the pandemic more rampant.
“It could be this mutation that created the pandemic,” geneticist David Engelthaler told the NY Times.
Viruses are mutated all the time. Most of the time, this means harmless changes in genetic makeup that are hardly noticeable in practice. But already in January something happened in the new coronavirus that likely affected the course of the pandemic, new research reported by the New York Times.
The Northern Italian variant
This variant became known as the 614G and was first discovered in eastern China. In just a few months, it had taken over much of the world. In northern Italy, the second epicenter of the coronavirus next to Wuhan in China, it was the 614G that devastated.
But the researchers still couldn’t understand why. Had the 614G simply developed the ability to infect humans more effectively, or was it a coincidence?
New research now points to the theory that small changes in the gene pool, such as the 614G mutation, had a big impact on the outside world.
Photo: tgen.org
David Engelthaler, researcher in genetics.
David Engelthaler is researching genetics at the Arizona Research Institute for Genome Studies, Genomics. He believes that the virus, which was incredibly contagious from the beginning, had probably spread around the world even in its original form.
“But when all is said and done, it may have been this mutation that created the pandemic,” he told the NY Times.
Several studies confirm
There is no evidence that this mutation affects the course of the disease itself. But studies from the United Kingdom indicate that outbreaks grew faster if the virus was of the 614G variant than if it were the “original” variant from Wuhan. Here, the researchers had access to the world’s largest database of coronavirus cell mass. This made it possible to compare all the different virus variants against each other on a large scale and see which one spreads the most. It was 614G.
Photo: Antonio Calanni / TT
People queuing to get tested in Bolzaano, Italy.
Research on hamsters also indicates that they infect each other faster with 614G. Similar results have emerged in research studying the forms of viruses in different human tissues.
New changes may occur
The 614G theory can also explain why some countries and regions are more affected than others. It just depends on when this particular crown mutation reaches them.
– There is the possibility that new changes affect the course of the pandemic, says David Engelthaler to the newspaper.
This was just one of many mutations that come from the original virus variant that was first discovered in Wuhan. Most are harmless. But there are risks, the mutation that was recently discovered in mink farms in Denmark ran the risk of rendering the vaccine that is now being produced completely ineffective.
– We must listen carefully to what the virus tells us, says David Engelthaler.
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