Monday 28 November 2022 06:14 PM Next big Covid variant WILL be more deadly, according to new study of ... trends now
The next Covid variant to emerge is poised to be more severe than the mild strains that are currently world-dominant, according to a new study.
The ultra-infectious Omicron strain emerged almost exactly a year ago and its mutated spinoffs have risen to the top in virtually every country in the world.
They are far milder than the older versions of the virus and many researchers believed they represented a kind of end game for Covid’s evolution, which like many viruses before it, mutate to be more mild so they can spread more easily.
But researchers in South Africa say the virus still has the potential to get deadlier after examining an immunocompromised HIV patient who harbored the virus for half a year.
Over time, the virus evolved to cause more cell death and cell fusion, leading to inflammation in the lungs.
These effects more closely resembled those of the ancestral Covid strain than the Omicron strain, according to Alex Sigal, leader of the study.
The patient is one of the longest known sufferers of Omicron, which itself is widely believed to have evolved in someone with a severely weakened immune system.
Immunocompromised people cannot adequately clear out infection, which allows the virus to continually replicate and mutate in their body over time, before spreading to others with its new alterations.
Still, the findings from South Africa represent just one theory about the future of Covid's spread and protection gained through vaccination and prior infection puts the US - and world - in a stronger position to beat back another deadly surge.
The finding comes amid warnings that China's unrelenting Covid outbreak could spawn a doomsday variant which has the potential to send the world back to square one in its fight against the virus.
The next Covid variant to emerge is poised to be more severe than the mild strains that are currently world-dominant (file image of Covid)
Covid deaths in the US remain high at around 400 per day on average, considerably higher than the UK, which is reporting an average of about 72 deaths per day. China, meanwhile, has not made true mortality data publicly available.
New Covid cases in the US are averaging around 41,000 per day. This is markedly lower than the current rate in the UK, where an average of about 55,000 cases are reported daily.
Hospitalizations remain relatively flat compared to the trend seen in the mid-Summer surge made up of a cocktail of omicron subvariants. The UK, meanwhile, is seeing a continued decline in hospital admissions.
The latest study, by researchers from the
