https://www.upmc.com/media/news/020321-mccarthy-duprex-deletions
Evolution is a MF’er!
Covid appears to be evolving, to become resistant to antibodies. My guess has been, and still is, this will turn out much like the flu. We will have to make adjustments to vaccines on a yearly basis, and get vaccinations at least once, if not twice a year to have some sort of protection from our new friend.
The key takeaway from the article:
“Although this paper shows how SARS-CoV-2 is likely to escape the existing vaccines and therapeutics, it’s impossible to know at this point exactly when that might happen. Will the COVID-19 vaccines on the market today continue to offer a high level of protection for another six months? A year? Five years? “How far these deletions erode protection is yet to be determined,” McCarthy said. “At some point, we’re going to have to start reformulating vaccines, or at least entertain that idea.”
As is usually the case in things I fear may come to be, I hope I am wrong.
Y’all stay safe out there.
Evidence Based Reality 
Evolution moves such viruses into forms that are less lethal, not more. It seems the Black Plague did that, btw. By being less lethal, the host lives longer, is stronger to get around and infect even more people, etc. All of that is good for reproductive success of the virus.
Whoever invented that spurious “curse” of “May you live in interesting times” should have slapped their name on it as it would have made them immortal.
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That is generally true, they become less deadly, but more effective at surving/reproducing. That doesn’t really make me sleep better though…
The norm has a way of surprising us sometimes. This one is too new to become comfortable with it. The flu I’m used too. This one could throw us a curveball we ain’t seen coming yet.
I say too often, I don’t mind being wrong.
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I agree. Vaccines will be the norm.
I find it rather “interesting” (for lack of a better word) that humans and viruses have such an antagonistic relationship.
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Yeah, vaccines will be a new norm.
“I find it rather “interesting” (for lack of a better word) that humans and viruses have such an antagonistic relationship.”
You just made me wonder if my first wife must have been a virus 😉
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The vaccines that manufacture the spike protein can be reformatted to address new variants in about 4-6 weeks and then back to manufacturing as normal. Not a biggie.
The protein vaccines significantly boost the immunological response to all versions that contain the main corona ring proteins so, again, not a biggie to have a bunch of mutations. But I think you’re quite right about requiring booster shots… at least about every year until the prevalence of the virus in the community is negligible.
Lethality is only one measure: highly lethal variants kill their hosts off too quickly, usually, to become a pandemic, so mutations that lessen their immediate lethality can be far more deadly in that the virulence is great and so many more people get it and more people die as a result! But even virulence alone can sometimes be a good thing in that the pace of immunity is also greatly enhanced and so the pandemic ends sooner.
So the fact that there are multiple variants from different locations is an EXCELLENT example of evolution at work, demonstrating the power of fitness to propel frequency changes in the wider population. I just wish media would help promote this understanding of evolution rather than spend so much time and space and effort to sell the fear aspect of ‘deadly’ variants.
You know, for a bunch of apes, we’re doing a rather amazing job addressing the unknown and figuring out how reality works and then building stuff to affect it. This, too, should be widely championed as an remarkable achievement and ANYONE who raises the idiotic idea of ‘intelligent’ design from some benign divine tinkerer for these mutating virus’ has some serious ‘splaining to do why prayers and burnt offerings are not equivalently efficacious.
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Great comment Tildeb.
“Intelligent Design” lol! That idiot canard still has legs? 😉
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Stay safe
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