The worst fears of epidemiologists have been realized as Covid-19 has mutated, and the strain now dominating the world is up to six times more infectious.
New research identifying small changes in the proteins that protrude from the surface of the Covid-19 virus. These changes, which have evolved during the past six months, enhance its abilities to jump between humans – but have not increased or reduced its symptoms.
The public face of the United States’ fight against the exploding pandemic, Dr Anthony Fauci, told the American Medical Association at the weekend the findings – while unconfirmed – could be significant.
“I think the data is showing that there is a single mutation that actually makes the virus be able to replicate better, and maybe have high viral loads,” he said.
Viral load refers to the amount of virus colonising a sufferer.
The study was conducted by the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, the Duke University in North Carolina and the University of Sheffield’s Covid-19 Genomics UK research group.
The team studied 999 British patients being treated for severe infections, as well as conducting laboratory experiments on how effective the virus was at breaching the defences of human cells.
The researchers revisited their initial work in June after the scientific peer-review process challenged the extent of their findings. The revised results indicate the current strain – D614G – is between three and six times more infectious than the original first detected in the Chinese city of Wuhan.
But exactly how this mutated protein affects the transmission of Covid-19 outside a laboratory environment is yet to be determined.