• Question: If covid were to mutate once again what do you think would be the new difference?

    Asked by EdnahO on 11 Jan 2022.
    • Photo: Rebekah Penrice-Randal

      Rebekah Penrice-Randal answered on 11 Jan 2022:

      RNA viruses will always mutate, it is in their nature to do so. SARS-CoV-2 enters the cell through a receptor on our cells, then unpackages it’s contents into the cells cytoplasm. The genome is made out of RNA and is about 30,000 nucleotides long! It is one of the longest RNA viruses! The virus has a polymerase that can replicate this genome, and it is a bit clumsy so can make mistakes, mutations. These are entirely random, however, IF one of these mutations makes the virus fitter, it will get selected for. This makes it hard to predict.

    • Photo: Sean Elias

      Sean Elias answered on 11 Jan 2022:

      It is very hard to predict as mutations are random. Natural selection is the process that chooses which mutations are beneficial to the virus in the current environment and selects them to increase in number. So far most mutations have selected for either increased transmission (easier to pass between people) or immune evasion. Many scientists predict the virus will gradually beome like a common cold over time which means it will most likely evolve to pass quickly between people but cause less disease. It could do this by mostly infecting our upper respiratory tract (nose, throat) rather than lungs. Omicron does this to a degree but can still cause very serious disease in some people especially unvaccinated adults, so we shouldnt yet reaally call it a mild disease.

    • Photo: Danielle Nader

      Danielle Nader answered on 11 Jan 2022:

      There is not really a pattern between the mutations that have already developed in Alpha, beta, gamma, delta, omicron etc. so it would be hard to tell which mutation would be next. Viruses mutate at random, because their machinery is very prone to errors and mistakes. However, we can predict which mutations will be the most dangerous in terms of severity and spread. So the next time the virus mutates, we can tell very early on whether it will be a cause of concern.

    • Photo: Melanie Krause

      Melanie Krause answered on 11 Jan 2022:

      Hi Ednah,
      That’s a fantastic question 🙂 …and it’s really difficult to answer.
      So in general the virus mutates all the time, but a new mutation would have to be an advantage for the virus, so that virus particles with this mutation would spread more and become dominant (like Omicron just did).
      If had to guess which type of mutation would be able to dominate over Omicron, I think it would be a version that spreads better or infects cells more easily (although Omicron is already very good at that), or that is not recognised by the vaccine that is currently being developed against Omicron..
      I hope that we can eventually have a broad spectrum vaccine that works against all current and future variants.

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