Coronavirus mutation

[Fambo Number Mive]

I posted this in the pantsdown thread but thought it might be worth a thread of it's own.

Scientists say they have identified a mutation in coronavirus which they believe means a more contagious strain has been sweeping Europe and the US - and could even reinfect those who already have antibodies.

Researchers at Los Alamos National Laboratory in the US detected 14 mutations in the COVID-19 virus spike proteins, one of which - known as Spike D614G - they said was of "urgent concern".

Their research paper suggests the mutated strain of coronavirus that has become dominant across the world was first indentified in Europe and is different to those which spread early on in the pandemic...

With this second type of coronavirus having being discovered, doesn't this mean some people will have caught the first type but not the second and vice versa, thereby reducing the number of people who are completly immune?

Doesn't it also mean we will need a vaccine for both types of coronavirus? Maybe I am misunderstanding the science, I know there are plenty of people on here who know more about science than me.

In the light of this news, surely the Government should be extending the lockdown, increasing enforcement and closing the building sites that have reopened.

https://news.sky.com/story/coronavirus-scientists-identify-more-contagious-mutant-coronavirus-strain-sweeping-europe-and-us-11983554

[steveh]

With this second type of coronavirus having being discovered, doesn't this mean some people will have caught the first type but not the second and vice versa, thereby reducing the number of people who are completly immune?

They are not sufficiently different to have different immunity or need a separate vaccine. You can have apparently multiple strains at the same time though. This is good on the mutations: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/04/30/science/coronavirus-mutations.html

There was a German preprint (i.e. not yet peer reviewed) paper a couple of weeks back that suggested that having recently had one of the coronaviruses that causes colds gave limited immunity to SARS-CoV-2 but that has yet to be proven definitively.

Edit: Specific debunking of claims of a new deadly strain and what it means: https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2020/05/coronavirus-strains-transmissible/611239/

[Fr.Bigley]

Viruses tend to mutate to infect MORE easily but mutation generally causes LESS severe symptoms.

[chveik]

hiya new mutation mate

[steveh]

Read this today which says that Coronaviruses have a "genomic proofreading mechanism" which keep them from accumulating mutations that could weaken them. It's like this one has every nasty trick going.

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-01315-7

Worth reading the whole article, but this bit deserves quoting:

Some researchers hope that the virus will weaken over time through a series of mutations that adapt it to persist in humans. By this logic, it would become less deadly and have more chances to spread. But researchers have not yet found any sign of such weakening, probably because of the virus's efficient genetic repair mechanism. "The genome of COVID-19 virus is very stable, and I don't see any change of pathogenicity that is caused by virus mutation," says Guo Deyin, who researches coronaviruses at Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou.

Rambaut, too, doubts that the virus will become milder over time and spare its host. "It doesn't work that way," he says. As long as it can successfully infect new cells, reproduce and transmit to new ones, it doesn't matter whether it harms the host, he says.

But others think there is a chance for a better outcome. It might give people antibodies that will offer at least partial protection, says Klaus Stöhr, who headed the World Health Organization's SARS research and epidemiology division. Stöhr says that immunity will not be perfect — people who are reinfected will still develop minor symptoms, the way they do now from the common cold, and there will be rare examples of severe disease. But the virus's proofreading mechanism means it will not mutate quickly, and people who were infected will retain robust protection, he says.

"By far the most likely scenario is that the virus will continue to spread and infect most of the world population in a relatively short period of time," says Stöhr, meaning one to two years. "Afterwards, the virus will continue to spread in the human population, likely forever." Like the four generally mild human coronaviruses, SARS-CoV-2 would then circulate constantly and cause mainly mild upper respiratory tract infections, says Stöhr. For that reason, he adds, vaccines won't be necessary.

[Cuellar]

WE'RE ALL GOING TO FUCKIND DIE

[Abnormal Palm]

hiya new mutation mate

I laughed

WE'RE ALL GOING TO FUCKIND DIE

I laughed

[Fambo Number Mive]

They are not sufficiently different to have different immunity or need a separate vaccine. You can have apparently multiple strains at the same time though. This is good on the mutations: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/04/30/science/coronavirus-mutations.html

There was a German preprint (i.e. not yet peer reviewed) paper a couple of weeks back that suggested that having recently had one of the coronaviruses that causes colds gave limited immunity to SARS-CoV-2 but that has yet to be proven definitively.

Thank you, good to know this.

[Head Gardener]

[steveh]

There was a German preprint (i.e. not yet peer reviewed) paper a couple of weeks back that suggested that having recently had one of the coronaviruses that causes colds gave limited immunity to SARS-CoV-2 but that has yet to be proven definitively.

Twitter thread summarising a new paper showing that immune response in average non-hospitalised cases is consistent with normal antiviral immunity and potential cross-reactive immunity from cold-causing coronaviruses which may also help in vaccines: https://twitter.com/profshanecrotty/status/1261052353773363200.