JUST one month ago, the world was already struggling to contain the spread of the coronavirus. Now the challenge has become even harder. The emergence of new variants with different properties has changed the rules of engagement.
That the coronavirus should evolve isn鈥檛 surprising 鈥� this is what viruses do. 快猫短视频s have been sequencing the genome of the SARS-CoV-2 virus since it began spreading out of Wuhan in China, recording the mutations that naturally accumulate as more and more people become infected and pass it on.
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This virus evolves mercifully slowly. Until recently, the genetic changes we saw were of little consequence to us, but that has begun to change.
Now the virus has picked up mutations that allow it to spread more easily and, in some cases, that could help it evade our immune system (see 鈥淗ow worried should we be about the new coronavirus variants?鈥�).
A faster-spreading virus leads to more infections, as has been seen in the UK and several other countries, and thus, inevitably, to more deaths.
An 鈥渆scape mutant鈥� virus that can evade our immune response, meanwhile, has the potential to reinfect those who have already had covid-19. Such a variant might even lead to the need for tweaks to vaccines or new treatments (see 鈥淐an coronavirus variants reinfect people and evade the vaccines?鈥�).
鈥淎 virus that can evade our immune system has the potential to reinfect people鈥�
The news of these new variants has coincided closely with the widespread and very welcome roll-out of vaccines against covid-19. These vaccines offer us a way out of the pandemic, but we already knew it would be a long road to vaccinating almost the entire adult population of the globe. The recent evolution of the virus shows us just how long and complicated that road could be.
As we try to work out how best to counter these variants, and what tweaks may need to be made to our vaccines, there is really only one thing we know for certain: the only way to stop the virus from evolving is to stop it from spreading.