As viruses are exposed to environmental selection pressures, they mutate and evolve, generating variants that may possess enhanced virulence. Some of the primary concerns that public health officials have as these new variants continue to emerge include their viral transmissibility, reinfection rates, disease severity, and vaccine effectiveness. SARS-CoV-2. Image Credit: ImageFlow/Shutterstock.com How do RNA viruses mutate? The mutation rate of single-stranded ribonucleic acid (ssRNA) viruses is observed to be much higher than organisms that possess single-stranded deoxyribonucleic acid (ssDNA), and many times more than those with double-stranded DNA (dsDNA). Not all mutations necessarily increase virulence and, in the majority of cases, may in fact be deleterious or inconsequential. Therefore, organisms must find an equilibrium between a high mutation rate that allows them to adapt to changing environmental conditions, and a low one that lessens the incidence of catastrophic mutations. Small DNA viruses may encode their own DNA repair, and ...
BY ELIZABETH HANES, BSN, RN OCTOBER 19, 2020 As you stock up your medicine cabinet for the traditional winter “cold and flu season,” you may find yourself wondering if COVID-19 will get worse this winter, too. Probably, yes. As I keep saying, there’s a lot we don’t know about how this virus behaves. But we do know a combination of factors — including human behavior — could lead to a spike of COVID-19 cases throughout the winter months. First, thanks to cold weather, people will get pushed indoors. We know the virus spreads more easily indoors than outdoors, where wind can disperse and blow away the viral particles. So if people decide to beat “quarantine fatigue” by engaging in more indoor activities — like entertaining friends at home or dining out or gathering for the holidays — then we could see a surge of COVID-19 cases. Second, the onset of cold and flu season means more people will ...
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