NORFOLK, Va. — The coronavirus that spreading now may not be the one that was spreading months ago.
Scientists believe it's mutated.
EVMS Infectious Disease expert, Dr. Edward Oldfield said that beginning in May, when the virus is isolated in a lab it's in a different form than it was back in February 70 percent of the time.
It's also more efficient.
"This mutation gives it more spike proteins, so it has more spikes that it can use to infect human cells. It's also has been shown that the viruses that have this type of mutation have higher amounts of the virus," Oldfield said.
That means it's more transmissible from person to person, but Oldfield said it's not any deadlier.
The spike proteins on the virus are what it uses to insert into the receptor on a human cell and invade it.
The good news is that according to Oldfield, the mutation should not interfere with current vaccine development or the common treatment of using convalescent plasma, which comes from COVID-19 patients who have already resolved their infection.
"It turns out when they've taken convalescent plasma from these patients, it neutralizes this virus just as well as the other viruses."