The Nuance
The Coronavirus is Mutating. It’s Unclear if That’s a Problem.
Here’s what you should know
The novel coronavirus has mutated, and the mutated form of the virus now accounts for most cases in the U.S. and across the globe. That’s the major finding of a recent study, published July 3 in the journal Cell, which also found evidence that the mutated coronavirus may be more infectious than its predecessor.
“The first cases on the West Coast of the U.S. were the original type that emerged in China,” says Erica Ollmann Saphire, PhD, one of the authors of the new study and a professor at the La Jolla Institute for Immunology in California. “The new form came to the East Coast of the U.S. from Europe, and it’s now globally dominant.” Her study includes color coded graphs that reveal how the mutated virus appeared to wrest control from the older virus; in New York City, the mutated virus was dominant almost from the get-go.
The principal author of the new study, Bette Korber, PhD, says that the newer “variant” of the virus was first identified in Italy, and that it likely emerged from a mutation in a single individual. While the old virus persisted in some parts of the U.S., and may still be the most prevalent form in a few places, Korber, who is a research scientist at the U.S. Government’s Los…
