Rumors of a second, deadlier strain of coronavirus are off the mark, experts say

Has the COVID-19 virus mutated into a second, even deadlier form? Not exactly, despite some alarming rumors, New Scientist reports.

The virus, first reported in China, has swept across Asia and now has sparked outbreaks in Europe and the United States.

More than 111,000 cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed worldwide with nearly 3,900 deaths as of March 9, according to Johns Hopkins University. The United States has more than 560 confirmed cases with 22 deaths.

It’s true that geneticists in China have identified two strains of the virus behind the outbreaks, the Los Angeles Times reports.

A more virulent “L-type” strain dominated the early outbreak in Wuhan, China, but most later cases involve a milder “S-type” strain that may have been the original version of the virus, Fortune reported.

Chinese scientists say the S-type virus contains more genetic material from bats and pangolins, a type of scaly anteater, both of which may have been involved in passing the coronavirus to humans, the Los Angeles Times reported.

But the World Health Organization and other scientists say the genetic changes identified by the Chinese study are minimal, New Scientist reported. Mutations are common when viruses adapt to human hosts.

“In all practical terms, the virus is as it was when it originally emerged,” said Ian Jones at the University of Reading in the United Kingdom. “There’s no evidence it is getting any worse.”

“It’s got a slightly different signature, but it’s not a fundamentally different virus,” said Mike Ryan, the WHO official handling the COVID-19 epidemic, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Another expert, epidemiologist Nathan Grubaugh at the Yale School of Public Health, calls the conclusions about virulence “pure speculation,” pointing out the Chinese study only involved viruses from 103 patients, Live Science reported.

The authors of the Chinese study also urged that more research be done, Fortune reported.

“These findings strongly support an urgent need for further immediate, comprehensive studies that combine genomic data, epidemiological data, and chart records of the clinical symptoms of patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19),” they wrote, according to the publication.

This story was originally published March 8, 2020 at 8:58 AM with the headline "Rumors of a second, deadlier strain of coronavirus are off the mark, experts say."