Scientists studied the viral DNA from 103 people infected with the virus that has killed over 3,000 people worldwide.
Questions still remain, the team said, as to which strain is more virulent, and whether L evolved from S in humans, or in the animal that hosted it before it jumped to people.the work is"an early study of the evolution of the new virus." Their"conclusions are reasonable, but they are not supported by any biological experiments so they remain plausible but not proven," he said.
Jones argued the scientists were ill-advised to use to term"aggressive, which doesn't mean much biologically.""What they mean is that the virus transmits more easily, not that it causes worse disease," he said."In addition the 70/30 split in the types is not that great and some of their data show both types in the same patients.
"Overall it seems to me the virus is remarkably stable. That's bad news in that it is not getting any less infectious, but good news in the sense that what we have is probably as bad as it will ever get," said Jones. That"means that a vaccine made now will still be relevant in six or nine months time when it might eventually appear," he explained.
In an apparent attempt to allay fears that the study might raise at a time of heightened anxiety, virologist IanHe compared the viruses to a family splitting and moving to Canada and the U.S.: they would both still be human, but would speak different variations of the same language and be culturally different.Richardof the University of Basel, tweeted that the split could be down to the L group being sampled more in Wuhan, making it appear more deadly.of some variants.
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