Who is Causing the Mutations of COVID?

COVID's killed at least 10 times the number of people as nuclear weapons.

 

Nuclear weapons have only been used twice so your point i completely meaningless..

 

COVID's only been used once, that we know of.

 

Thanks. My recent readings had informed me of that. Many people think covid was engineered or weaponized. If so then it would be a great candidate for mutation since it is already has manipulated nucleic acids.

 

Even if bio engineered Covid--19 is not a weapon.

 

LOL, keep telling yourself that.

It's far better than nukes in a cold war situation. There's little plausible deniability when you drop a bomb.

There's plenty of plausible deniability when a virus "leaks" from a lab where you were weaponizing it and it causes far more damage.

 

A virus reproduces by copying its RNA/DNA as all living things do. Whether it is alive depends on how one defines life. A virus cannot reproduce by itself, but a mineral cannot reproduce at all, so a virus is somewhere between being alive and being a rock.

The point is that mutations in the genetic material occur in much the same manner as living things. Some are simply errors in the process. Others are caused by interaction with cells and/or substances. These are random occurrences; we can bombard cells with radiation in attempting to cause a mutation, but we cannot predict whether a mutation will occur, what that mutation will be, nor whether it will be beneficial, harmful or benign. Most all mutations have no effect on an organism.

What happens to an organism (including viruses) that has mutated depends on its environment, which we term natural selection. It's been claimed here that the vaccine itself is causing mutations. This may be true; mutations can be caused by various stimuli, but any idea that the virus "knows" it's being attacked, and is therefore defending itself is wrongheaded. I'm just a lay person, so anyone educated in viral biology can correct me, please, but I believe natural selection operates no differently on a virus than it does on any other organism. Without going through a wordy analogy, a mutation that results in a beneficial advantage at reproduction will spread through the population. As it relates to a vaccine, a mutation that provides a defense against the vaccine will survive and reproduce. This mutated virus will be passed to other hosts, where the process repeats itself, and before long, the virus becomes a variant or a strain, as more mutations occur which benefit its survival.

Maybe a simple analogy would be helpful.

Animals' appearance can mimic their environments, for both camouflage and stealth. The Arctic is a prime example. Many animals are white to blend in with the snow. If we took a population of brown rabbits, for example, and relocated it to the Arctic, it would eventually become white, as mutations (or already present genetic code) would give an advantage to white furred rabbits. If you think of the snow as a vaccine, and the rabbits as a virus, and also factor in the rapid reproduction rate and the sheer size of a virus population, it should be clear as to how a new variant arises.

The vaccine keeps the size of the population down; it reduces the viral load. This has the effect of having a smaller population subject to mutation, but also reduces the possibility of transfer, which is key. So, while the OP may be correct that vaccines are resulting in the virus "selecting" vaccine resistant mutations, the odds of spreading this mutation are greatly reduced among the vaccinated.

 

A virus is not a living thing and it cannot reproduce at all. It happens upon a living cell and infects it. Then the living cell reproduces its nucleic acid. No living cell, no reproduction.

Yes.

Again a virus is not an organism. It doesn't exist in the taxonomic charts. I think you are correct that mutations occur in cells' copies of the DNA or RNA of the virus and natural selection decides how competitive or successful the mutation will be;

Yes, natural selection always works in the same ways. A more competitive virus is just like your white rabbit. If it is more contagious or virulent or vaccine resistant than other strains it will overcome the weaker strains.

Viruses don't select or respond to anything. Their only purpose is to infect cells. They have no control over anything. The reason natural selection "tolerates" them is that they actually have something to do with the evolutionary process itself. So I am told.

 

That's what I just said. Glad you agree.

Getting hung-up on my choice of terms isn't helpful.

What happens to an organism (including viruses)

Yes, which is what I said.

A virus is subject to natural selection because it reproduces. Simple as that. No "tolerance" necessary.

 

Agreed, though he did say, "Worse now than nuclear weapons have been." You are most definitely correct, though.

What I find remarkable is some people's attitude that bioweapons are anything new. We have our own, I'm certain.

A nation would use a bioweapon offensively only when and if it has already developed a vaccine for its population and military. Whether this sars virus was intentionally weaponized is unknown, but it was not intentionally released.

 

Clearly its caused by bat soup.

 

Mutations happened long before vaccines existed, it just happens and no pressure needed. Some sicknesses in history we only know by their symptoms, because the virus...wasn't good enough, or maybe they stuck the victims with a spear while they were fracking the Baal lady.

If enough ants survive the poison, they can get resistant, survival of the fittest, but they can also mutate to their detriment like dumb flightless birds that can't fly away from people of color who can do no wrong by eating other tribes, or having to run for many miles to find a tree for a coming of age ceremony (the African elders say they run farther each year).

The variants didn't start after widespread vaccinations, viruses are super stupid natives that sometimes kill their host too quickly, and every once in a while someone let's the killer bees out or the kudzu or the Brazilian pepper plant or the bioweapon.

Before we even heard of any variant I expressed the fear of mutations of the CoronaZombie. It just freaking happens, no brain needed for a virus, it just mutates, only man is so stupid as to bring a stick to a gunfight to count coo.

 

Bat fried rice sounds more tasty.

 

Whether or not a DNA/RNA has been manipulated by humans or not has no influence on the mutation rate. In fact, if the virus had been created in the laboratory and optimized by directed evolution, it is surprising that it can be even made better by evolution in nature. Food for thought.

 

Your choice of terms is important because an organism is a living thing. A virus is not an organism. Again, viruses do not reproduce. The cells they infect copy and reproduce their nucleic acids. But yes of course natural selection is at play.

 

Thanks. I will modify my view of it.

 

You sound like a professor of virology. In which university do you teach? Do you have any lessons on YouTube? I would love to learn from you!

 

Funny to listen to those "experts" in virology. What doesn't quite match up with his "theory" is that the delta variant emerged in India in December 2020, when nobody in India was vaccinated. Of course, the people like the OP are not interested in actual science, they just want to fling their politicized B$.

 

There is more to "damage" than number of deaths.

 

Well the more infections to more chance for mutations. And as with any species changes occur through mutations some successful most not. Evolution. Influenza mutates into different strains every year, we can tailor vaccines and will do so with COVID.

I just heard Modena is going to recommend a winter booster. I'll get it when I get my flu shot.

 

God and Mother Nature are the cause of the growing mutations of Covid......just like the Flu there's always a new strain.

 

Well, the idea is to vaccinate everyone before the virus has a chance to mutate.

Now, the logic that says no vaccine, no mutation, there might not be as quick of a mutation, but then everyone would have covid and millions would die. That was the 'let everyone get it' strategy that didn't go over well.

but, in order for the vaccine strategy to really succeed, everyone who can get it should get it. But trumpsters are not vaccinating.

 

Did they finally do research to prove this or is this just one of those things that keeps going around? The covid lives in your nose and won't effect you with symptoms if you are vaccinated. Essentially, you are still a carrier.

 

But the viral load you build will be smaller ergo less likely to infect others - not by much but there is hope

 

Since a vaccine allows your body to kill the virus, would this not act in a similar way to antibiotic resistance, selecting for vaccine resistant strains?

PS: not an anti-vaxxer.