Why do viruses mutate so easily? The expert explains where the new variants come from

We are fighting against time – we invent vaccines and drugs, and the virus mutates. For now, we are perhaps a head faster than him. – says Ewelina Kamińska, one of the most recognized scientists of the young generation, author of the e-book “COVID-19 Pandemic. Everything you need to know about the coronavirus, tests and vaccines. ”

1. A mutation is an indispensable “side effect” of reproduction. Although the virus is not a living organism, it divides and during this multiplication random mutations arise – explains Ewelina Kamińska
2. It was much easier for us to control the first wave of coronavirus infections – says Ewelina Kamińska. – The virus caused severe respiratory syndrome, so virtually everyone who got sick ended up in the hospital
3. Subsequent mutations left patients with mild or no symptoms. They could travel and spread the virus around the world. – That is why we have been stuck in this pandemic for the last two years – explains the geneticist
4. The specialist also says that COVID-19 is not the only pandemic that we will face in this century. Climate change is forcing us to migrate, and these are contributing to further mutations in animal viruses
5. More information can be found on the Onet homepage.

Marta Dudziak: Let’s start from the beginning, where did the coronavirus come from?

Ewelina Kamińska: Human coronaviruses have been known to us since the 60s. Until 2003, they were considered harmless – we know seven of them, four of which only cause mild colds. It was only due to SARS-CoV-1, commonly known as “SARS”, that it began to be classified as potentially dangerous to humans.

The first dangerous coronavirus was causing severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS). His fire was established in China. The virus quickly spread to neighboring countries – its cases were also found in the USA and Canada, and the mortality rate was much higher than that of SARS-CoV-2, as in some places it was even up to 45 percent. The disease itself was also much more severe than COVID-19. Virtually everyone who fell ill ended up in the hospital. This is the main reason why SARS was easier to control than COVID-19.

Dlaczego?

Because a more severe disease did not allow infected people to move freely in public places or fly by plane. SARS-CoV-2 infection, on the other hand, can be mildly or asymptomatic. And here’s a small digression – yes, asymptomatic infections also exist in other diseases. For example, polio – most often it was asymptomatic, because fever, vomiting or neurological symptoms only affected some of the patients. Coming back to the first SARS – because every second patient died, and practically everyone had a hard time, the disease did not have time to travel with us.

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COVID-19, on the other hand, traverses countries and continents.

Yes, in this case we have a much greater possibility of transmitting virus particles from person to person. The virus is much more contagious but less virulent (deadly) than the one that causes SARS. That is why we have been stuck in this pandemic for the last two years. While SARS-CoV-1 probably “jumped” from palm civets to humans under the influence of several naturally occurring genetic mutations, research indicates that bats were the last animal reservoir for SARS-CoV-2. Based on genetic sequencing data, we suspect that our famous coronavirus has awkwardly mutated there to infect humans. However, we have not identified a particular group of bats that have a virus sequence within them that perfectly matches SARS-CoV-2. If we find, we will close the same door to the arguments about the exit of the coronavirus from the Wuhan laboratory. For now, we cannot do this because we have no evidence for either of these hypotheses.

Was it possible to predict the current situation?

Scientists already several years ago sounded the alarm about the high risk of an outbreak of human pathogenic zoonotic viruses due to extensive human interference in wildlife. Those who have been studying coronaviruses since the times of SARS and MERS (ed. Middle Eastern Respiratory Syndrome) said that the worst was still ahead of us.

It is said in the scientific community that this is not the only pandemic we will face in this century. Climate change is forcing both humans and animals to migrate, and these are contributing to further mutations in animal viruses. SARS-CoV-2 is not the only case of a zoonotic virus that has also become dangerous to humans over time. The Ebola virus, influenza A and HIV also come from animals.

What awaits us?

The scientific community has made it clear from the outset that until we have vaccines it will be very difficult to contain a pandemic. We talked about the fact that we would be able to silence it only when we find effective vaccines and we all get vaccinated with them. Vaccines have been around for a very long time, but the danger is still there as half of Europeans do not want to get vaccinated. There are also Third World countries where there is no easy access to vaccination points, which cannot afford vaccines, and unfortunately the virus will mutate the most in them.

In a word, will we live with the pandemic?

Yes. Unfortunately, we will have to live with it until the last COVID-19 outbreaks are extinguished. We are fighting against time – we invent vaccines and drugs, and the virus mutates. For now, we are maybe a head faster than him. However, if we continue to live as we do now in Poland, one day we will get to know another letter of the Greek alphabet, which may completely escape the immunity caused by vaccinations. Then we will start the race anew, from the last position.

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Why does the virus mutate so easily?

Because this is how viruses whose genetic material is RNA work. For example, consider an influenza virus whose genome is also RNA. The tendency for viruses to evolve is to become as contagious as possible, but less virulent. The ideal virus for evolution is one that everyone would have for their entire lifetime.

For example?

For example, the herpes virus. It is close to ideal – many people have it, but it is activated only at times of a decline in immunity, stress or illness. Its throw is not fatal, so next generations of people can easily contract it.

From the beginning of work on the vaccine, the possibility of mutating SARS-CoV-2 was taken into account, so so far, even with Omikron, those vaccinated do not have any major reasons for concern. Vaccines are still effective.

A mutation is an indispensable “side effect” of reproduction. Although the virus is not a living organism, it divides and random mutations arise during this multiplication. Most of them don’t change anything, but one in many millions of mutations can change something about a key virus protein. Then the mutation becomes important and, if useful to the virus, contributes to its further “survival” and reproduction, to over time become the main existing mutation creating another recognizable virus variant (as in the case of Delta and Omicron).

Does your observation show that the virus is mutating faster and faster?

The principle is that the more people in the world get sick, the more cases occur in large infection centers, the faster the virus mutates – faster in the sense of “in more places at once”, and this gives rise to more and more new mutations and causes a real threat .

What will happen next with the mutations? How will the situation develop? Where will we be at this time next year?

As I said, I hope the virus evolves in the right direction and, although it infects more often, it becomes less hazardous to your health. This is what I wish for myself and everyone else this time next year.

However, long ago the whole situation in the world got out of the control of any organization, so today I honestly shake my head and say that I do not know what awaits us. I wish we all got vaccinated and significantly diminished the virus’s ability to mutate further, but looking at how powerful the anti-vaccine movement is, I’m starting to fear that not only COVID-19 will defeat us, but also long-overdue diseases returning to the continent. which vaccines have been around for years. People stop vaccinating their children against basic infectious diseases, so COVID-19 is not the only disease we should be concerned about. The problem is also that our Polish health care system was not efficient before the pandemic. COVID-19 has made it difficult to diagnose other diseases, and now the beds are filled with unvaccinated people. This significantly increases the risk of other non-communicable diseases. We die from cancers en masse, and these are often deaths that can be avoided thanks to diagnostics and efficient treatment. Unfortunately, waiting six months for an imaging test is a standard, and for six months the prognosis of an oncological patient may drop dramatically. Therefore, extinguishing the pandemic is important not only for the disease itself caused by SARS-CoV-2 infection, but also for all other diseases.

What can I – an individual in the maze of information – do?

Don’t read Facebook crap. In fact, it is reaching for proven information provided on scientific or governmental websites. Any posts about the pandemic on social media that contain elements of extreme emotions or cite uncertain sources should be ignored by us. Unfortunately, they get the most comments and that’s why they end up at the top of our feeds. I recommend observing several verified profiles of prominent scientists, virologists, e.g. Dr. hab. Tomasz Dzieiątkowski, who shows statistical data in an excellent and legible way and answers questions from skeptics. It is also important to learn to distinguish between opinions and facts during a pandemic, because the main reason for conspiracy theories is the lack of this skill.

Read also:

1. Patient zero infected with IHU. He was vaccinated
2. The new symptoms of Omikron only occur in the vaccinated
3. Doctors warn: there will be more and more cases of flurons
4. This is where the fifth wave will begin. Doctor: hit the east wall

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