At 03:58 26/03/2020, Thomas Cox wrote:
>I think the issue here is that the probability of a functional
>mutation, or change ,in the RNA, increases as the number or
>organisms infected increases. Since this may wind up infecting
>hundreds of millions of people, it would appear that there are
>plenty of opportunities for "mutation", however one might want to
>define that term.
Yes, I think that you have got to be right. Since the primary
opportunity for mutation occurs during replication, and since that
replication can only happen within a living host cell (be it human,
animal, plant or bacterium), then I think it must follow that the
more hosts are infected, the more mutations will happen.
For those of a "half full", rather than "half empty" personality, I
suppose it's worth mentioning that, being an essentially random and
indiscriminate process, viral mutation can result in a reduction (or,
I suppose, theoretically also possible elymination!), rather than an
increase, in pathogenicity.
Kind Regards,
John
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