How do these new Covid-19 strains occur ?

Viruses often acquire small changes of a letter or two in their genetic alphabet

just through normal evolution ~

A bigger worry is when a virus mutates by changing the proteins on its surface

to help it escape from drugs or the immune system.

In April, researchers in Sweden found a virus with two genetic changes

that seemed to make it roughly two times more infectious !

About 6,000 cases worldwide have been reported, mostly in Denmark and England

Will people who had COVID-19 from an old strain be able to get the new one?

Will it undermine vaccines?

Probably not : Scott Gottlieb said on CBS “Face the Nation.”

“Unlikely,” said Oxford !

Dr VK Paul, member of government think-tank Niti Aayog

said on Tuesday that the new strain of the coronavirus that has been spreading rapidly in the UK,

has not been detected in India yet.

BUT the message is Clear : protect yourself by the use of PPEs

OR just stay at home and Relax/Chillax.

Its gonna be a great Christmas Pepperpot, Ginger Beer and Sorrel ~

All viruses naturally mutate, and Sars-CoV-2 is no exception, accumulating an estimated one or two changes a month.

Mutations are generally a chance event that will have little impact on the properties of a virus.

"The very vast majority of mutations which we observe

in genomes of Sars-CoV-2 are there as passengers.

"They don't change the behaviour of the virus, they are just carried along."

Dr Lucy van Dorp, an expert in the evolution of pathogens at University College London (UCL).

One mutation in the spike protein (known as N501Y) has been reported before in other countries

but not in the same combination and number of mutations, suggesting the same mutation

has evolved several times and may be important in some way

Another mutation in the spike protein (P681H) is thought to be of "biological significance"

A deletion (at position 69-70) has been linked in the past to mink farm outbreaks

and in patients with weakened immune systems who can incubate the virus for several months

Mink outbreaks are a "spillover" from the human pandemic

Hundreds of thousand of viral genomes have been analysed across the world !