A series of studies of the genomes of thousands of samples of the new coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 show that it is mutating and evolving as it adapts to its human hosts.
FILE PHOTO: The ultrastructural morphology exhibited by the 2019 Novel Coronavirus , which was identified as the cause of an outbreak of respiratory illness first detected in Wuhan, China, is seen in an illustration released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. January 29, 2020. Alissa Eckert, MS; Dan Higgins, MAM/CDC/Handout via REUTERS.
* Using the same GISAID database, a team at University College London in Britain screened the genomes of more than 7,500 viruses from infected patients around the world. That contradicted a previous preliminary study by Chinese researchers that suggested there had been two strains circulating in people at the start of the COVID-19 outbreak in China, and that one had been more “aggressive”.“This multiple strains idea has to be very much debunked,” said Eric Topol, a cardiologist, geneticist and founder of the Scripps Research Translational Institute in La Jolla, California.
Lawrence Young, a professor of molecular oncology at Britain’s University of Warwick, said that while there is “much speculation about the possible emergence of more aggressive strains”, studies so far show that is not the case.
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