Don't worry about coronavirus mutations

The idea of a mutating virus, breaking out into new strains, is enough to scare most people. But are these fears justified, and where do they come from?

There is no clear-cut evidence the new variant of coronavirus - which has been detected in south-east England - is able to transmit more easily, cause more serious symptoms or render the vaccine useless.

Surely Hollywood must bear some responsibility for our misconceptions about mutation. After all, the concept has inspired movie makers for decades, starting with Die, Monster, Die! in 1965 through to big-budget franchises, such as X-Men. Both tell tales of changes to DNA resulting in superhuman abilities.

The virus could have mutated to spread more easily and is causing more infections.

But variants can also get a lucky break by infecting the right people at the right time. One explanation for the spread of the "Spanish strain" over the summer was simply people catching it on holiday and then bringing it home.

Mutating coronavirus

DNA, or in the case of the coronavirus, RNA, is the set of genetic instructions that tell an organism which bricks are needed and in what order to create the proteins it needs to survive.

Mutations affect these instructions, meaning the number or type of amino acids that make up a particular protein get changed. This, in turn, has the potential to change the properties of the protein. However, this is the Hollywood spoiler: most mutations lead to no beneficial change in the protein properties at all. In fact, mutations that change the properties of a protein are more likely to weaken the virus than strengthen it.

Only mutations that confer an advantage (or make no difference) persist in the DNA. To talk of the virus having “aims” and “intents” with mutations is to talk from a human perspective. In a similar way, there is a debate about whether the “ultimate virus” would be one that survived within you undetected for your entire life, or one that hops quickly and easily between new hosts. Both would require extensive mutations, the results of which are too random to be planned.

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Viruses work through generations far faster than large organisms such as ourselves, and groups of small changes can cluster more quickly into significant differences. However, in the case of the newly identified variant in the south-east of England, we have no evidence yet that this mutation makes the virus more harmful or transmissible.

Mutations to the spike protein lead to questions about the vaccine because the three leading jabs - Pfizer, Moderna and Oxford - all train the immune system to attack the spike.

However, the body learns to attack multiple parts of the spike. That is why health officials remain convinced the vaccine will work against this variant.

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Don't worry about coronavirus mutations