I see in Europe there is new panic ginned up over a new strain of COVID-19.
For the record, LiveScience reports that the seasonal flu has a mutation rate of almost 50 mutations per year. And at least as of April, COVID-19 seems to have had a mutation rate of less than 25 mutations per year.
This, of course, says nothing about how a particular mutation changes the virus but if there are about 50 mutations per year of the flu, it suggests most of the mutations are not serious.
To report a new strain of COVID-19 without context is absurd and typical of the scaremongering we are seeing around a virus that at this point is not a significant threat to 99.9% of the population.
-RW
The liberal MSM LOVES the scare-mongering, science fiction-y effect that "mutant" or "mutation" has in their headlines: "MUTANT STRAIN DEVELOPING IN EUROPE!" or "THE VIRUS IS MUTATING!" and the like. One almost gets the notion that we're going to be The Omega Man (with Charlton Heston) inside of a few years.
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