Quarky00
Enlightened
- Dec 17, 2019
- 1,956
Everything mutates , the question is to what extent . For example many mutations are "silent" and do not alter the protein's amino acid sequence. In fact regarding SARS-2 (which is the corona):So you are saying they don't mutate?
There are 111 nonsynonymous mutations that have been identified in the outbreak, these have been catalogued here in the CoV-GLUE resource 126. There is no evidence that any of these 111 mutations have any significance in a functional context of within-host infections or transmission rates.
SARS-CoV-2 time tree phylogeny. Colours indicate geographic location of sample. Date of sampling is shown below the tree.
The idea that viruses mutate , although factually true , is fearmongering , as researchers noted :
Evidence from the widespread media uptake (35 articles at last count), and many comments on social media in response to this article, suggests that the unsupported claims made by Tang et al. have already spread undue fear.
Tang et al. should retract their paper, as the claims made in it are clearly unfounded and risk spreading dangerous misinformation at a crucial time in the outbreak.
TLDR: Viral mutation should not worry you .