Puzzledandpissedoff
“ a huge thing has been made of new variants recently, but while no virologist even I can see there have been mutations almost from the start (back in the spring there was an interesting coloured thing showing them all, but of course it's lost now among the latest carry on)
I'm not for an instant suggesting these changes don't exist, but it can be wise to remember just how much influence the behavioural scientists are using”
You are conflating mutations with variants.
Viruses mutate all the time.
When they “grow” they make copies of themselves and make errors in their genetic code, which is known as a genetic mutation.
Sometimes, these mutations lead to a noticeable change in the virus protein. Most of which, have no major consequence to how the virus goes about its business. This happens at a rate of about two mutations per month so far for SARSCoV2.
These changes are mapped on the “interesting coloured thing” you describe. A phylogenetic tree.
When sufficient changes occur to change the way the virus behaves ( usually we see it becoming more dominant) it is known as a variant. This also happens loads. There have been hundreds of variants worldwide.
Again, this hasn’t caused any worry so far. It’s just normal for viruses.
Then, in December/very early January , we saw saw three new variants appear that had a very large number of mutations occur all in one go, which gave the virus an advantage. At the same time, we saw those variants begin to “take over” from local variants. Also, those variants share some of the changes that give the virus an advantage. This is really a concern because it is evidence of something called convergent evolution. It means the virus is finding a way to adapt to its host.
Why don’t you listen to the actual virologists, epidemiologists, structural biologists and other scientists if you are not an expert yourself?
Read the article I posted, it’s a great summary of the current state of play.
www.sciencemag.org/news/2021/01/new-coronavirus-variants-could-cause-more-reinfections-require-updated-vaccines
This is really nothing to do with behavioural scientists (are you trying to imply that there is nothing special about these variants and they are being used to control of influence your behaviour?)