THE key point which is the most important factor determining whether COVID-19 is here to stay or whether we can eradicate this “virus”, is a mutation, says Dr Vinod Balasubramaniam from Jeffrey Cheah School of Medicine & Health Sciences, Monash University Malaysia.
“The virus continues to evolve through mutation, evading the immunity built by existing vaccines,” says Vinod.
Mutation: The gameplay
Viruses mutate because they’re constantly making copies of themselves in enormous numbers and each time it is transmitted from one person to another, the chances of making errors (mutation) are high, especially in RNA viruses like SARS-CoV-2.
Vinod says that mutations are an essential evolutionary process particularly pertinent in the ever-changing nature of RNA viruses in adapting to their host. The mutation increases the genetic diversity of the virus, creating the different variants and subvariants over time.
Vinod explains mutation using this analogy. “Think of it this way. If you were writing a draft of something millions of times on a computer, extremely quickly, you would probably make some typos. This is what is happening across the globe where a large population is involved. The longer the pandemic rages on, the more chances the virus has to evolve, especially in unvaccinated individuals.”
This was the case for the current rapidly spreading BA lineage (sometimes known as B.1.1.529) which the World Health Organization labelled Omicron. Omicron has spread rapidly, representing almost all current cases with genomes sequenced globally.
