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“The coronavirus is no worse than the flu, and indeed, it cannot mutate endlessly,” some say. However, all the facts say otherwise. We have prepared for you the debunking of the three most common misconceptions about COVID-19.
Comparisons of coronavirus infection with influenza began to spread at the very beginning of the pandemic. Some even manage to argue that the flu is more dangerous – after all, new strains of this virus appear every season.
Yes, indeed, the influenza virus mutates much faster than SARS-CoV-2 – after all, its evolution does not occur in the human body (unlike the coronavirus), which means that it has much more mutation options.
However, the danger of viruses is measured not in how quickly they change, but in how infectious they are and what their ability to cause infectious processes is – this characteristic is called the pathogenicity of the virus. And in this SARS-CoV-2 cannot be compared with the flu – its pathogenicity is many times higher.
In addition, the flu is a seasonal disease. And you can’t say the same about coronavirus – outbreaks of this disease occur much more often than a couple of times a year.
Doctors are sure that the only thing that flu and COVID-19 are similar to is that in the near future humanity will not get rid of either one or the other.
“After illness, immunity is stronger than after vaccination”
When the vaccination campaign first began, many refused to be vaccinated, arguing that natural immunity protects better than a vaccine, and therefore it will be more effective to simply get sick.
This misconception can be justified by the fact that in a person who has had COVID-19, antibodies are formed immediately to many proteins of the virus, while the vaccine acts only on one of them.
However, evidence is now emerging that refutes this assumption. Immunity that targets only one external protein has shown better results than immunity that smoothly but slowly fights each protein individually. As the saying goes, if you chase two hares, you won’t catch either…
“Soon the virus will stop mutating and the pandemic will end”
Tired of the pandemic, people are increasingly arguing that SARS-CoV-2 cannot mutate indefinitely, which means that the variations of the virus will stop very soon. However, this assumption is easily refuted by the recent Californian strain, which has already acquired three new mutations.
As soon as biologists began to talk about the fact that the modifications of the coronavirus had already ended, a week later an article was published about the next California version.
Unfortunately, while scientists have no idea how soon the evolution of SARS-CoV-2 will end and whether it will happen at all. And therefore, all that remains is to follow the instructions of doctors and do everything to protect yourself and your loved ones.