The virus causing COVID-19 mutates less than the flu virus

International research groups put genetic information about the SARS-CoV-2 virus in the same database. The Spanish scientific news and information service SINC has announced that it already has more than 430 samples from 40 countries. They have seen how it evolves genetically in comparison and, for the moment, have deduced that it mutated less than the flu virus.

 

A high rate of mutation hinders the development of drugs and vaccines, since if the virus genes change a lot, they stop being effective. That is why every year they have to renew the flu vaccine, for example.

 

However, it is still more what they do not know than what they know. For example, they have failed to know what changes are affecting: aggressiveness, virulence or transmission models. The more samples are decoded and the more epidemiological data they have, the more conclusions and more concrete will be extracted, but in any case, this result has revealed the value of collaboration.