• Question: What makes a virus stronger?

    Asked by anon-256872 on 13 Jul 2020.
    • Photo: Ashfaq Ahmad

      Ashfaq Ahmad answered on 13 Jul 2020:

      Hi Olivia,
      There can be many things but I will specifically mention one thing, “Evolution” or “its ability to mutate”. The viruses have a genetic material (DNA or RNA) and their ability to bring changes in the sequence of their genetic material is something that makes them stronger and difficult to be controlled. These mutations can make the virus weaker or stronger.

      Imagine, a person gets infected with the virus but he develops immunity against it and survives. After some time, the virus mutates (changes its genetic materials) and become stronger. The person who had previously developed immunity against its weaker version, will not be protected against the newer version. So novel mutations can make the virus really really stronger.

    • Photo: Angela Downie

      Angela Downie answered on 14 Jul 2020:

      Hi Olivia!
      This is a very interesting question, and I think it there is many ways to answer it. As Ashfaq already said, a mutating virus can become more difficult for us to fight off! And mutations can bring problems to treating the virus and to developing vaccines.
      Another thing I think is important to think about is what we mean by ‘stronger’. The first thing you might think of is a very deadly virus and while this would be very bad (and I wouldn’t want to catch it!) deadly viruses tend to die out quickly, because well, if the host is dead it can’t pass the virus on! On the other hand there are viruses that although don’t affect us much (like a common cold) are everywhere, so in their own way these viruses are also strong, because they always stick around. However, we tend not to worry about them because they don’t make us very sick. The viruses we have the most problem with are the ones like the current coronavirus; they aren’t the deadliest of viruses so they stick around a bit, but they can make some people really sick so we do need to worry about them! This is what has made this pandemic so hard and why we need to keep fighting it like we have!

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