This week the Omicron sub-type BA.2 grew to become dominant within the U.S., demonstrating that greater than two years into the pandemic, SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID, continues to evolve and unfold.
The unfold of latest variants means it's simpler for individuals to catch COVID twice. A kind of individuals was U.S. billionaire Elon Musk.
The Declare
On March twenty eighth, Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musktweeted that he "supposedly" has COVID after having caught it as soon as earlier than in 2020.
Musk said that SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID, is "the virus of Theseus"—a reference to the philosophical thought experiment known as the Ship of Theseus, which asks whether or not an object can nonetheless be thought-about the identical object if all of its elements are changed.
He additionally requested: "What number of gene adjustments earlier than it is not COVID-19 anymore?"
Covid-19 is the virus of Theseus.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 28, 2022
What number of gene adjustments earlier than it’s not Covid-19 anymore?
I supposedly have it once more (sigh), however virtually no signs.
The Information
So is SARS-COV-2 actually the "virus of Theseus?"
Sarah Otto is an evolutionary biologist on the College of British Columbia in Canada. She advised Newsweek that viruses "can evolve to the purpose the place they're distinct sufficient that they're known as not only a variant however a completely new pressure or disease-causing agent."
"To some extent, Omicron is inflicting a considerably completely different illness than earlier SARS-COV-2 variants," she stated. "If Omicron hadn't emerged in the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, we is likely to be tempted to name it a special illness."
The problem, she stated, was understanding at what level a virus ought to be known as a special virus altogether or simply one other variant. "In the long run, labels are what are helpful to us. By calling Omicron a 'variant of COVID-19', we perceive it higher."
Nicola Stonehouse is a professor of molecular virology on the College of Leeds within the U.Okay. She advised Newsweek that to ensure that a variant of SARS-CoV-2 to be labeled as a very completely different virus, there would should be no cross-protection towards it.
"This is able to imply that earlier an infection and/or vaccination would give no safety in any respect," Stonehouse stated. "I feel we're a great distance from this place, luckily!"
Andrew Rambaut is professor of molecular evolution on the College of Edinburgh. He stated the naming of viruses is certainly based mostly on thresholds of genetic variations, however does not account for the truth that viruses evolve rapidly.
"For instance HIV-1 is vastly extra numerous globally now than it was when it was first sequenced within the 80s," Rambaut advised Newsweek. "If it was found now and characterised it might in all probability be cut up into a lot of completely different teams."
"SARS-CoV-2 might be outlined because the virus first characterised in late 2019 and all descendants regardless of how a lot divergence happens."
"It might be that it diverges into two or extra co-circulating lineages and these could possibly be given names, just like the influenza B virus' Yamagata and Victoria lineages."
He did word some exemptions, nevertheless. One can be if SARS-CoV-2 had been to mix with one other kind of circulating coronavirus, by which case "that might doubtless be given a brand new title."
One other risk can be the emergence of one other virus from the identical animal reservoir that probably spawned SARS-CoV-2. This, Rambaut stated, would "in all probability be known as SARS-CoV-3."
The Ruling
Half True.
Specialists have stated that it's hypothetically doable for a virus—together with SARS-COV-2—to evolve a lot that it may well not be thought-about the identical virus it as soon as was. However, scientists say, that's not the case with COVID proper now.
FACT CHECK BY NEWSWEEK
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