WHO: Covid will mutate like the flu and is likely here to stay

Re:WHO: Covid will mutate like the flu and is likely here to... by m0llusk on Wednesday September 08, 2021 @11:56AM (#28458933)

Influenza virus has a structure that makes mutations easy with mixing and matching common in hosts. Coronavirus has built in error checking and functions by generating a large protein that is split up to assemble new virus. This means that the rate and scale of mutation will always be less than influenza, though the assertion that it will stay and be endemic is almost certainly true.

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Re:WHO: Covid will mutate like the flu and is likely here to... by TrevorJ on Wednesday September 08, 2021 @12:39PM (#28459566)

The data seem to indicate this is not the case.

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Re:WHO: Covid will mutate like the flu and is likely here to... by nradov on Wednesday September 08, 2021 @01:28PM (#28460310)

The influenza virus mutates faster than SARS-CoV-2 on a per infection basis. But over the past two years we've had far more people infected with SARS-CoV-2 so the total number of mutations worldwide has been high. Over time we expect the rate of new mutations to decrease as more people gain some level of immunity and the virus approaches it's evolutionary maximum potential. We already see that the Delta variant is fairly stable and is successfully out competing all other variants in the wild.

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