Houston Methodist Hospital researchers suggest in a new preprint study that there might be a more infectious strain of the coronavirus running through Houston.
- The preprint is not peer-reviewed. But “preprints have become a popular way to disseminate scientific and medical findings during the COVID-19 pandemic,” according to MarketWatch.
The researchers measured two waves in Houston to determine that a strain became more infectious as the months of the pandemic rolled on.
The researchers specifically measured the genomes of the more than 5,000 strains of the coronavirus.
- 82% of cases in the first wave (from early March until about May) were caused by the Gly614 variant strain.
- Almost all cases from May 12 onward had the D614G mutation, which had an increase of protein “spikes” on the virus, according to Reuters.
The Houston researchers said patients infected with the mutation had higher amounts of the coronavirus. However, “they found little evidence that mutations in the virus have made it deadlier, noting that severity of COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus, was more strongly linked to patients’ underlying medical conditions and genetics,” according to Reuters.
Why this matters
David Morens, a virologist at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told The Washington Post that the study ““may have implications for our ability to control it.”
- The virus, he said, could be responding to mask-wearing and social distancing.
- “Wearing masks, washing our hands, all those things are barriers to transmissibility, or contagion, but as the virus becomes more contagious it statistically is better at getting around those barriers,” Morens, a senior adviser to Dr. Anthony Fauci, told The Washington Post.
This isn’t really new
- Researchers have been discussing different strains of the coronavirus for months, dating back to the early days of the pandemic. Most reports on these new strains suggest the virus has become more infectious but not necessarily more deadly.