Post B69tK8oNFDdUE8lrBw by thatfightnerd@poa.st
 (DIR) More posts by thatfightnerd@poa.st
 (DIR) Post #B69spohHSstn9ize7s by kioshi@poa.st
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       :keku:
       
 (DIR) Post #B69spowAZWoBttxXKi by jeffcliff@shitposter.world
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       @Red_Venom @kioshi This is what happens when you let millions of people continue to be susceptible and allow the moderately-mutatable disease to mutate for a long period of time.  This is what we were told would happen if we did not get covid under control, and it did happen.
       
 (DIR) Post #B69tK8oNFDdUE8lrBw by thatfightnerd@poa.st
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       It's not moderately mutating, it's highly mutating. That's the N-protein's job. Good thing is that it can't mutate infinitely because of base pair saturation and single nucleotide polymorphisms.
       
 (DIR) Post #B69tXX9K4HZ3TSxJ4q by jeffcliff@shitposter.world
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       @thatfightnerd @kioshi i'm not so sure that it can't.  there may be a way to lengthen its genes and there doesn't seem to be a guarantee that it can't lengthen it further.  But in practical terms, in the short term(eg in the next 100ky) the mutational clock seems to be pretty consistent based on the number of hosts.as far as whether the substitution rate is high or moderate i guess that's somewhat subjective -- it's high enough to mutate around a vaccine, but low enough that the vaccine can still protect.