Now 30.

[Jolly]

https://m.jpost.com/HEALTH-SCIENCE/Coronavirus-has-mutated-into-at-least-30-different-strains-new-study-finds-625333

[taiwan_girl]

@Jolly

What does this mean? I know with flu, that they try and make the flu shot to cover the "strain" that they think will be most common.

But, does it have any effect on the other types?

So, with the above, will we need an infinite number of vaccines?

[Jolly]

The more strains, especially if they are somewhat dissimilar, the less likely an effective vaccine.

[taiwan_girl]

@Jolly said in Now 30.:

The more strains, especially if they are somewhat dissimilar, the less likely an effective vaccine.

[Mik]

If this is true we are well and truly screwed.

[Jolly]

I have expressed doubts about a vaccine since it was first bally-hooed.

We've been working 17 years on SARS and we got nada.

[brenda]

That could explain why some people are asymptomatic, and others get hit so hard. It may explain how the viral load has varied so much.

[Horace]

Are we just looking really hard at Covid 19 and figuring out finally how all viruses work always?

[Aqua Letifer]

Maybe we'll reach attenuation?

[jon-nyc]

@Horace - I don't think so, virologists have been studying and mapping viral mutations for a long time.

I think the mutation rate of SARS-COV-2 has been known for a while.

Also you can have mutations that affect pathogenicity but are not antigenic.

I looked at the paper, and the authors don't mention any antigenic drift. Lets keep our fingers crossed.

And join me in calling down an 8th plague on the fucks at jpost for not linking to the study.

[bachophile]

I know squat about virology. But I don’t think the small genetic mutations mean anything because a vaccine is usually targeted at vital proteins without which The virus can’t proliferate and so these small point mutations which don’t change the inherent viral biology are probably meaningless.

However on the bright side, usually most mutations tend to be less virulent as the virus always trends darwinianly to one which keeps the host alive and thus better chances to propagate.