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Asked by anon-251314 to William on 29 Apr 2020.
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William Glass answered on 29 Apr 2020:
There’s no clear answer to this. It may do, but we just don’t know enough about it yet to say anything for certain. Related viruses, like seasonal flu, certainly do mutate and that’s why vunerable people need to get a flu jab each year. At the moment scientists are working around the clock to study the virus and find out more about it. If we find that it does mutate often then we may treat it more like seasonal flu (i.e. get a flu jab each year), but if it is slow to mutate then any vaccines we make may work for a longer time – which is good news in the long run! I’m sure in time we will have the answers to these questions for certain!
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Comments
Melanie commented on :
The good news is that SARS-CoV2 is a proof-reading virus.. meaning it has the ability to check if it replicates the genetic information correctly.. so while there is a chance of the virus mutating it will happen more slowly and the changes would not be as severe as if the virus was not proof-reading
modmia commented on :
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