Covid-19 continues to mutate: More contagious does not mean deadlier

(Patria) - Health experts believe that the Covid-19 virus has continued to mutate during the pandemic, and is likely becoming even more contagious.

According to a new American study that analyzed 5,000 genetic sequences of the virus, its mutation does not lead to higher mortality or a change in the virus's effects - although it is now even easier to get infected.

David Morens, a virologist at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, claims that the results of the new study should be interpreted with caution, but also that the mutation could be the virus's reaction to epidemiological measures such as social distancing.

- Measures represent barriers to transmission or infection, but as the virus becomes more contagious/transmissible, it statistically overcomes such barriers more easily, Morens explains.

He also mentioned that the virus could continue to mutate even after the introduction of a vaccine, which means that the vaccine would have to be regularly adapted, as is the case every year with the flu vaccine.

The US remains at the top of the world list for the number of infected people, which now stands at at least 7,185,516, while the death toll has reached a staggering figure of 207,538.

According to data from Johns Hopkins University, twenty US states have faced an increase in the number of new infections of at least 5% in the past two weeks.

American public health experts claim it is too early to draw conclusions about the cause of the renewed increase in new infections, i.e., whether it is a consequence of gatherings during Labor Day in early September, the opening of schools, or the cooling weather in many parts of the country, leading to more time spent indoors.

Dr. Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, attributes the increase in the infection rate to young people and their lifestyle. He claims that 26% of new infections are among people aged 18 to 25, and that 90% of Americans can still get infected, thus refuting the belief that the US is on the path to developing herd immunity.