Don’t be fooled by reports on “new” coronavirus mutations

Studies that suggest that the coronavirus behind covid-19 has mutated into a more infectious form are once again in the spotlight. But while the basic science of this study may be justified, it’s not so worrisome that some headlines may lead you to believe-the virus slips through masks and surviving soaps and water. The “new” stock is the same that the United States has been dealing with for months.

On Wednesday, a large team of scientists Released A dissertation on the preprint website medRxiv. This is a repository of preliminary research that has not yet gone through the typical peer review process. In it, they elaborated on how they genetically sequenced more than 5,000 samples of SARS-CoV-2, a coronavirus collected from patients in the Houston, Texas region between March and July 2020. I will. In the meantime, the changes in the virus have been recorded genetics, clearly marked by the appearance of two different waves of covid-19 outbreaks in the region.

The most potentially significant changes include mutations in the viral spike protein. This is the key to letting the virus enter the cell, simply called the D614G. During the second wave, which began in late May, more than 99% of the strains collected had the D614G mutation. In addition, on average, patients had higher levels of virus in the system during this second wave compared to the first wave of infection. The authors write that it may suggest that the D614G strain of coronavirus is superior in infection and replication in our cells.

Back in May, scientists at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico the first To account for the emergence of the D614G form of the virus, this mutation becomes more common and eventually compared to the earliest case in China where the first known outbreak of covid-19 occurred. Last winter it provides evidence that it is always present in strains collected over time. They also theorized that D614G is good at infecting us with the virus.

Since then, More research The latest Houston study lends support for this theory. However, there is still no direct evidence that the D614G strain is more infectious than the SARS-CoV-2 strain that first appeared in China. Nor is it provided in this latest study. As we now know, the coronavirus has spread from Europe to everywhere else in the world, including the United States.

“These studies should be done, but for now, they’re pretty much the same. More common, but they don’t really do anything,” said Angelaras Mussen, a virologist at Columbia University. I don’t know. ” research.

Perhaps more importantly, no one, including researchers studying D614G, believes that this mutation is likely to actually kill the virus or make us sick. is.

“We found little evidence that there was a significant relationship between viral genotype and pathogenicity changes,” the author of this new study wrote.

Even if the D614G form of the virus is really more infectious than before, it probably won’t change the situation in the field. Most of the world, especially the United States, has been fighting for the D614G form, so these studies have not identified mutations that could make the virus worse than it is today. This new paper emphasizes that the D614G strain was 99% common in the second wave of infection in Houston, for example. Read it Completely, we found that 82% of the strains during the first smaller wave also carry the D614G mutation.

“It makes sense that this is the most frequent variant today, as it was already a major circulating variant in May,” Rasmussen said.

It is certainly important to record the genetic evolution of the coronavirus (and potentially dangerous bacteria) and identify mutations that may affect the interaction of the virus with humans. However, both scientists and journalists should be careful to overemphasize the implications of this study. This study should be reproduced and ideally studied through experiments that can directly demonstrate the effects of mutations.

Viruses and bacteria are constantly mutating, and in most cases these mutations do not really change much. Even if mutations can have beneficial effects on bacteria, they still have to be widely inherited, which is not certain. For example, a mutation that makes it better to replicate a bacterium may not actually spread it more, because it also makes the host sick enough to kill them before passing the infection to others. Because it may be.

David Morence, epidemiologist and scientific adviser at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Discussed Houston, in collaboration with The Washington Post, said, “Wearing a mask and washing your hands all of these are infectious and impaired, but as the virus becomes more contagious, it statistically avoids these obstacles. Unfortunately, some media outlets have adopted this estimate and implemented it. Fox News Headline: “A coronavirus mutation has emerged that may circumvent the protection of masked hand washing.” Which?

Widespread mutations in the wrong type of coronavirus can undoubtedly affect the potential therapies and vaccines we are developing. But I haven’t seen it so far evidence Of that event. And, needless to say, viruses do not tend to mutate small hands that can break through physical barriers such as masks. Similarly, no one is worried that the virus will be immune to soap and water.

The situation can change at any time and you need to be prepared for the worst. But now, the virus we are facing does not seem to be more threatening than in the early days of the pandemic, at least based on the research on D614G collected so far.