Why so many Covid-19 variants are showing up now - Vox

[Rhiannon12866]

And what that tells us about the pandemic.

Like any virus, SARS-CoV-2 has been mutating constantly since the beginning of the pandemic. Until November of 2020, though, that didn’t seem to matter. That’s when scientists in the United Kingdom noticed an alarming change: The virus had mutated in a way that made it more transmissible. Within a month, similar reports were emerging from places around the world. Suddenly, it seemed the virus was changing at an alarming rate.

SARS-CoV-2 hasn’t actually been mutating faster, though. Instead, by letting it spread around the world, we’ve just given it more and more opportunities to mutate as it replicates. The result is that, after countless random mutations, there are signs that the virus is beginning to adapt to our natural defenses. And because it’s completely normal for a virus to change over time, we shouldn’t expect it to stop. The only real way to stop those changes is to stop giving the virus so many opportunities.

[Aussie105]

1. This is not surprising.

The seasonal flu virus does the same.

It's evolution at work, but not in a form we like.
Every reproductive event for the virus has a very small potential for genetic variation, most will be harmful for the virus, but the odd one will turn it into a super bug.

Some cases of the Delta strain here in Australia. Just walking past someone with it is enough to catch it.
Exposure time is minimal. Just breathe in at the wrong moment.

Vaccination is the answer, and a slow one. But the only one.
Reduce the human incubator breeding pool for the virus.

Eventually, the virus will be reduced to the level of the flu, get your annual flu/COVID jab, and be relatively safe.

[SheltieLover]

2. Ty for sharing

I saw this on Twitter about delta in your country:

https://mobile.twitter.com/DrEricDing/status/1406779894785351688

Yes, vaccinations are the answer for sure.

[wnylib]

4. There is another way that the rate of

vaccinated people will go up, but it is not a pleasant one to think about.

As unvaccinated people die, the vaccinated survivors will become the majority. It's what happened in nature before vaccines.

I came across an interesting study online of the DNA in a village in England where the survival rate from the Plague was known to be higher than other villages. This was a couple months ago and I didn't save a link.

The study found a genetic mutation in descendants of people who lived during the Plague. This mutation allows the human immune system to avoid Plague infection or to recover if infected. By tracing the records of Plague era villagers and their descendants through waves of the Plague into modern times, they learned that inheriting two copies of the mutation gave immunity. Inheriting one copy allowed people to survive if they did get infected. The survivors passed the mutation to descendants until there was inherited immunity in the village.

The study then tested other European populations for the mutation, especially in areas known to have been hit hard by the Plague. They found the mutation in high numbers among today's descendants. People without it had died off over repeated waves of Plague. Eventually, there were enough mutations in the general population to stop the waves of Plague from recurring.

We know now that the people today who are asymptomatic carriers of covid have a Neanderthal gene mutation that protects them. There is another Neanderthal gene mutation that makes people more susceptible to covid infection. If there were no vaccines, those mutations would determine who survives to give future populations immunity to covid.

We could also defeat covid more quickly, with less suffering and death, through vaccines. But, given human behavior, it looks like nature will play a big part in who survives.

[SheltieLover]

5. Very interesting!

Yes, human behavior is truly mind boggling, isn't it?

I want this to be over as much as anyone, but ignoring "inconvenient" factual data does not work.

I guess nature will have its way for sure.

Sadly, many who have been careful will likely contract this & suffer greatly.

And states continue to drop restrictions...

[LisaL]

3. Evolution in action. Survival of the fittest.

Virus mutates, and the best mutations are able to outcompete other mutations. For the virus, best mutations are the ones that make it more infectious.

[wnylib]

6. Chance roll of the dice.

It's not as though a virus consciously plots how to mutate to its advantage. It simply reproduces itself, and genetic errors occur during the reproduction process. By chance some of those errors (mutations) are more infectious to humans.

Humans also have mutations in our genetic history. Just like with viral mutations, most of those human mutations are neutral, neither good nor bad. But some of them make humans more susceptible to viral illnesses. Some mutations protect humans from viruses. It's a chance roll of the dice which mutations a person has. No one consciously produces a beneficial mutation. It just happens.

[LiberalArkie]

7. So the epsilon variant is going to be the zombie apocalypse?

[wnylib]

8. I can't even imagine how you drew that

conclusion from my post.

[LiberalArkie]

9. Maybe a few more mutations

[wnylib]

10. Which might be neutral, beneficial,

or harmful to the virus, so there's no telling when or if there will be a more devastating one than what currently exists. But the longer the covid virus exists in humans, the greater the chance that a mutation could develop that would resist all vaccines and medical treatments.

Or, an existing human mutation or two might turn out to be resistant to whatever new mutations the covid virus develops.

It's all a roll of the dice regarding mutations with both people and viruses. Which is why predictions like a "zombie apocolypse" or zombie virus can't be made. Or defined, actually.