brandon8283
Probably a drive-by
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There's a lot of misconceptions about how mutations work in this thread. This is another one that should be cleared up.This spike protein is ESSENTIAL to the mRNA virus and its ability to infect AND the spike protein RNA( the "code" that builds the spike ) is SET...in that if just ONE letter alters, its no longer producing the "spike" it needs to infect cells. So while mutations happen, its almost as if the portion of the RNA t( the code ) hat builds the spike is OFF LIMITS to mutations.
And the current mRNA vaccines target the spike protein to effectively render it useless.
Crazy to think, but a virus KNOWS what it ABSOLUTELY CANNOT alter for if it did, would possibly make it inert.
Mutations are random. The virus isn't "protecting" a certain part of its RNA. Just like mutations happen in your cells randomly, they happen in the virus randomly. The random mutations may be helpful and would be selected for, but the vast majority of mutations are not helpful to the organism and and are selected against.
So, for example, if a random mutation occurred that caused the spike protein in the virus to stop working, guess what would happen? That virus would not be able to infect a cell and would quickly die without passing on its newly mutated RNA. This could have happened multiple times by now for all we know, but because those mutations do not allow the virus to infect any hosts, they don't replicate, and this mutation is not passed on.
However, a mutation like the one in the UK that gives the new variant an advantage that allows it to infect a host cell faster would be selected for and would allow the new variant to rapidly spread. That is what seems to have happened there.