Evolution dictates viruses evolve up in virulence and down in lethality. A virus measures fitness by the ability to spread and not kill its host too soon, or ideally not kill it at all and spread to everyone and everything. More effective transmission is the evolutionary goal. If this thing is not mutating towards more virulence it is fighting the current that is its evolutionary goal. Artificial means may have been used to maximize this things virulence whether it be CRISPR or artificial mutation/selection for virulence. (ie. Breed a dachshund with a great dane and breed their offspring repeatedly and you get a dog that looks like the Iraqi mutts. Artificial selection breeds out.)
Yet another check mark in the column this was lab created.
This is a well written article. So many science articles are horrible. I see the author has a PhD which probably helps.
Re “Researchers analyzed the physicochemical properties of the proteins”
It should be: “analyzed the _theoretical_ physicochemical properties of the proteins.” It’s all computational. Modeling. Simulation. Good stuff but no physical chemistry or biophysics were done.
As for the premise, I think that there’s no real evidence any of the slight mutations observed have caused the virus to be attenuated in its disease causing potential. Yet that has not been ruled out.
Theoretically a zoonotic disease would have the properties of beginning deadly but changing to a faster spreading but less deadly strain. But there’s really no precedent to know.
Virus mutations can make a virus more or less virulent. But there are several factors to consider. Too much of an increase in virulence and the virus burns itself out by killing its hosts too fast. A significant decrease in virulence turns it into a kitten from a lion. However, the kitten might not resemble the original strain enough to provide protection - we see this with many diseases that have morphed into more or less virulent strains, and even the common cold that mutates often enough that a. there is no “common” cold, really, and b. immunity is unobtainable at our current level of technology.
The original strain, if it finds a sweet-spot like CCP-19 (was apparently engineered for), is not just going to go away. Unless you can contain it, eradicate it, including any reservoirs, it will come back again and again like many strains of various diseases do. The original strain might actually serve as an inoculant against the truly virulent mutations that will kill lots of people really fast. Or it might not. But, again, it isn’t going to go away just because we found a different flavor.
Pinning your hopes on a milder strain is kind of like wandering through traffic and hoping you get hit by a motorcycle instead of a bus. Nothing stopping that bus from running you over, anyway, after the motorcycle softens you up, first.
This is further data that supports Dr. Li-Meng Yan’s analysis that the virus was manipulated genetically to limit its mortality rate so that it would not be seen by the world as a restricted bioweapon under the Geneva and other international conventions.
It is instead an “unrestricted” bioweapon. Its damage is in creating economic and cultural chaos in the infected enemy population but does not kill their consumers. The idea is to weaken the enemy so they become more dependent on the stronger surviving nation, in this case China.
The CCP 1949-2049 plan is a little ahead of schedule. Now if they can get their candidate Joe Biden elected they will be off to the races. Better brush up on your Mandarin.