Infectious Disease Expert Says New COVID-19 Strain That’s 10X More Infectious Might be a ‘Good Thing’

If you’re the type of person who likes to read the news in the morning before doing anything else, you’ve probably been depressed for the last eight months.

Every piece of good news we get about Covid-19 is usually followed by several, chunkier pieces of bad news.

On Sunday (Aug 16), Malaysia’s director-general of health, Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah, shared a post on Facebook claiming that scientists have detected a new strain of the coronavirus in Malaysia, one that is “10 times” more infectious.

Many experts in Singapore have contested Dr Noor’s claims, saying there is no scientific data to support them.

One expert, however, believes that even if it were true, it might not be a bad thing.

Could Be Less Lethal

For the uninitiated, this “new” strain is called D614G, and has actually been around for quite some time, as the authorities in Singapore detected it way back in February.

The mutation has already made its way around the globe, as it was found in Europe, North America, and parts of Asia, according to TODAY.

Some worry that the new mutation may be more infectious, but one infectious diseases expert says that this may actually be a good thing.

Dr Paul Tambyah, president-elect of the International Society of Infectious Diseases, said the rapid growth of the D614G mutation in some parts of the world has coincided with a drop in death rates.

This could mean the D614G mutation is less lethal.

“Maybe that’s a good thing to have a virus that is more infectious but less deadly,” Dr Tambyah said in an interview with Reuters.

Dr Tambyah, who’s also a senior consultant at the National University of Singapore, said that viruses tend to become less potent as they mutate.

“It is in the virus’ interest to infect more people but not to kill them because a virus depends on the host for food and for shelter,” he said.

It’s not like the coronavirus has a grand plan or anything, of course. It’s simply a random mutation, much like how some people have the ability to listen to Donald Trump without rolling their eyes.

In his post, Dr Noor made another alarming claim; that vaccines being developed may be ineffective against the D614G strain.

Fortunately, there’s no evidence that this is true, and experts have said that such mutations would likely not impact the efficacy of vaccines.

“(The) variants are almost identical and did not change areas that our immune system typically recognise, so there shouldn’t be any difference for vaccines being developed,” said Dr Sebastian Maurer-Stroh of Singapore’s Agency for Science, Technology, and Research.

More About D614G

According to the Times of India, the coronavirus has undergone numerous mutations but only one so far has been singled out as possibly changing its behaviour – D614G.

The mutation is believed to have emerged in Italy sometime after the initial Wuhan outbreak.

The strain was seen in 97% of samples around the world, according to BBC.

As for its transmissibility, Dr. Bette Korber, a computational biologist and population geneticist, said that the fact the D614G seems dominant everywhere indicates it may have become better at spreading than the original virus.

Whenever the two strains were in circulation in the same area, the new strain took over, he said.

But, as Dr Tambyah stated, even if this were true, it could be a good thing, as the virus may be less deadly than the original strain.

At this point, you’re probably confused as to whether this is actually good or bad news. Unfortunately, certitudes about the coronavirus are rare. So, we’ll have to deal with the uncertainty for now.