
8 strains of the Coronavirus are circling the globe - anigbrowl
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2020/03/27/scientists-track-coronavirus-strains-mutation/5080571002/
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robocat
I think this article is wishy-washy.

Firstly, a strain with increased rates of transmission (R0) should dominate
other strains over time? Or does the randomness of early super-spreaders
dominate? A strain with a higher R0 would cause more deaths (even if it isn’t
more deadly).

Secondly, we simply don’t know if some of the genetic differences are causing
significant differences in symptoms, rate of infection, or death rate. To
statistically tease out difference between strains we would need to be testing
for different strains and correlating that against outcomes. Some differences
we can predict are likely to have no effect.

Aside: in countries with enough testing, there would be strong selection
pressure for a virus that isn’t detected (presuming most tests are similar).
Maybe also selecting against causing a temperature. I’m unsure whether I hope
that our Darwinian selection pressures are creating a milder strain, or
whether to hope we can eradicate it (seems unlikely).

