- Researches say the virus is making small changes to itself at a rate of about 1-2 changes per month.
- Viruses naturally make “mistakes” in their genomes as they copy themselves. Most of these mutations have no effect on people they infect.
- These changes act as a identification card for each iteration of the virus. Some persist and become the dominant form of the virus.
- The mutations thus far have been expected and the vaccine process already accounts for these types of changes.
- However, vaccines target multiple sites on the virus so a few random mutations could make the virus drug- or vaccine-resistant.
- For now, scientists are not seeing any signs that the virus mutations could create a problem with a potential vaccine.
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