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The virus may become more deadly, but there is no evolutionary reason for this to happen
Can new variants of the coronavirus continue to appear?
Yes, as long as the pandemic virus continues to infect people. But this does not mean that new variants will continue to appear regularly, or that they will be more dangerous.
Since more than half of the world’s people have not been vaccinated, the virus may continue to look for infected people and replicate in their bodies in the coming months or years. Every time a virus replicates itself, a small mutation may occur. These changes can help the virus survive and become a new variant.
But this does not mean that the virus will continue to evolve in the same way since its emergence at the end of 2019.
Andrew Read, a virus expert at Pennsylvania State University, said that when a virus infects a new species, it needs to adapt to the new host to spread more widely.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the delta variant is twice as infectious as the earlier version of the virus. Dr. Adam Lauring, a virus and infectious disease expert at the University of Michigan, said that although it may still mutate to become more infectious, its transmission rate may not double again.
“We have seen the rapid evolution of the virus. It has been reaping low-hanging fruit, but there are not many things it can do,” Laurin said.
This virus may become more deadly, but there is no evolutionary reason for this to happen. People who are seriously ill are also less likely to socialize and spread the virus to others.
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Experts are observing whether the emerging mutations can better circumvent people’s protection from vaccinations and infections. Dr. Joshua Schiffer, a virus expert at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, said that as more and more people are vaccinated, the virus must be able to spread through people with a certain degree of immunity to survive.
“The virus may mutate, making the immune response less effective,” he said.
If this happens, scientists may recommend that the vaccine formula be updated regularly, just like the annual flu vaccine.
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