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Is Coronavirus Weakening?

Jamie Dettmer

   A study conducted by a major hospital in Milan, Italy, has found that
   the viral load present in people who now test positive for the
   coronavirus is decreasing, suggesting the infection may be weakening,
   according to doctors, whose findings have been greeted with skepticism.

   Alberto Zangrillo, head of Milan's San Raffaele Hospital, said the
   coronavirus might be becoming less lethal and that those who have been
   recently infected have weaker symptoms than two months ago. "The swabs
   performed over the last 10 days show a viral load in quantitative terms
   that was absolutely infinitesimal compared to the ones carried out a
   month or two months ago," Zangrillo, a physician to former Prime
   Minister Silvio Berlusconi, told Italy's public broadcaster, RAI.

   The president of the scientific body advising the government on the
   pandemic says he is "baffled" by the claim. Italy has the third-highest
   coronavirus death toll in the world, with 33,475 people dying since the
   outbreak emerged it February, according to Italy's Civil Protection
   agency. After a strict national lockdown, which is now being eased,
   infections and fatalities have fallen steadily.

   Italian government officials are urging caution about the claim of the
   virus turning less lethal, warning it could confuse Italians. "We
   should instead invite Italians to maintain the maximum caution,
   maintain physical distancing, avoid large groups, to frequently wash
   their hands and to wear masks," Sandra Zampa, an undersecretary at the
   health ministry, said in a statement.

   Epidemiologists outside Italy are skeptical.

   Oscar MacLean, of the MRC-University of Glasgow Center for Virus
   Research in Scotland, said, "These claims are not supported by anything
   in the scientific literature, and also seem fairly implausible on
   genetic grounds. The vast majority of SARS-CoV-2 mutations are
   extremely rare, and so whilst some infections may be attenuated by
   certain mutations, they are highly unlikely to be common enough to
   alter the nature of the virus at a national or global level."

   COVID-19 is caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus
   2 (SARS-CoV-2).

   MacLean added, "Making these claims on the basis of anecdotal
   observations from swab tests is dangerous. Whilst weakening of the
   virus through mutations is theoretically possible, it is not something
   we should expect, and any claims of this nature would need to be
   verified in a more systematic way."

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