3 ms·
Flu is perculiar because it reassorts - it's genome is in 8? pieces, which can interchange with other similar flu viruses within an infected cell. So a coinfect
by somewhereoutth 5y ago
Flu is perculiar because it reassorts - it's genome is in 8? pieces, which can interchange with other similar flu viruses within an infected cell. So a coinfection with A and B flu strains may result in C strain mixed and matched from A and B. Very hard to immunize against.
- sjg007 5y agoCould sars-cov2 not do the same thing?
- somewhereoutth 5y agoNo, different virus structure. I believe there may be some possibility of gene swapping with a coinfected cell, but much less than flu - the Covid RNA genome is one long string, as opposed to 8 bundled together - it's easier to mixup separate pieces. Furthermore, Covid does have an error correction mechanism, though not perfect hence the mutations.