2 ms·
The bigger and more interesting question is whether it was originally in mice or it hopped from human to mouse and back. If SARS-COV-2 jumps this easily, well,
by AstralStorm 5y ago
The bigger and more interesting question is whether it was originally in mice or it hopped from human to mouse and back.
If SARS-COV-2 jumps this easily, well, we'll have serious problems predicting the mutations, a challenge for vaccine and drug design.
- CorrectHorseBat 5y agoI don't think that anyone seriously questions that Omicron is a mutation of the original strain from Wuhan? So yes, if Omicron comes from mice it's a jump from humans to mice and back.
- AstralStorm 5y agoNot necessarily. It could be same ancestral source or the mouse could have been the original vector, not the bats. Vector and mutation tracing is not an exact science, but a probability game - nobody catches all mice everywhere, or has access to all intermediate variants. Now, the origin in a different country does suggest a human host somewhere but it is not strictly necessary.