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Coronavirus - Part Two.


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3 hours ago, apelike said:

There is a theory by a Japanese guy that Darwin was wrong to assume that natural selection was the driving force behind evolution. He proposes that it's actually molecule mutations that is the driving force something which can now easily be seen to occur in the coronavirus.

When Darwin and Wallace published their new version of Evolution they proposed Natural Selection as the reason but they had no mechanism. Later discoveries provide the mechanisms -which are still evolving.

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It looks promising that vaccines help reduce transmission but it is still early days.

Scientists believe virus mutations are more likely if infection rates are still high in a partially vaccinated population (some people having one vaccine only and a large number still not vaccinated at all). That is one reason why I think the government are taking a gamble opening up all schools at once next week. 
Great as vaccines are the government are relying on them too much. We should be holding out with restrictions just a few weeks longer until infection rates are right down and more people are vaccinated.  Infection rates have been falling consistently but they are still 4 times higher than they were last May when lockdown restrictions were relaxed.

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3 hours ago, redruby said:

It looks promising that vaccines help reduce transmission but it is still early days.

Scientists believe virus mutations are more likely if infection rates are still high in a partially vaccinated population (some people having one vaccine only and a large number still not vaccinated at all). That is one reason why I think the government are taking a gamble opening up all schools at once next week. 
Great as vaccines are the government are relying on them too much. We should be holding out with restrictions just a few weeks longer until infection rates are right down and more people are vaccinated.  Infection rates have been falling consistently but they are still 4 times higher than they were last May when lockdown restrictions were relaxed.

agree its too early to ease things - especially to let the kids back and also to be booking holidays etc

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Mutation ,doesn't necessarily mean "worse".

If scientists get cracking it might be possible to get the virus to mutate itself out of existence.

Quote

On the other hand, their mutation rates are an exploitable Achilles’ heel: researchers and clinicians can increase RNA virus mutation rates using nucleoside analogues, and a 3–5-fold increase in mutation rate causes lethal mutagenisis in human-infecting viruses like polio virus and influenza.

https://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.3000003#pbio.3000003.ref002

Edited by petemcewan
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Mutewitness.

If you read the last but one paragraph. It might answer your question.

https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/can-the-covid-19-vaccine-beat-the-proliferation-of-new-virus-mutations

 

“These data highlight the prospect of reinfection with antigenically distinct variants and may foreshadow reduced efficacy of current spike-based vaccines.”

mRNA vaccines can be modified quickly to address emerging variants. 

Edited by petemcewan
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18 minutes ago, petemcewan said:

Mutewitness.

If you read the last but one paragraph. It might answer your question.

https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/can-the-covid-19-vaccine-beat-the-proliferation-of-new-virus-mutations

 

“These data highlight the prospect of reinfection with antigenically distinct variants and may foreshadow reduced efficacy of current spike-based vaccines.”

 

Quotes from a magazine referring  to a scientific article written two month ago may not be as informative as we need.

The actual  impact  and  response to the  South African and other variants can be found in more 'up to date' and  'readable' sources such as :

BMJ's Coronavirus (covid-19) Hub or

Nature briefing(not just Covid matters)

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