We can all help stop this wily virus mutating

WE ALWAYS knew the coronavirus would mutate and new versions are now popping up all over the place, which is concerning.

One of the things that may be driving these new mutations is, ironically, a treatment that a few months ago was being hailed as a game-changer.

Convalescent plasma therapy involves giving patients antibodies from people who have had Covid.

Not only does it now appear to be relatively ineffective, it may also be encouraging mutations.

Doctors at Addenbrooke’s Hospital, Cambridge, reported seeing the virus mutating before their eyes in a Covid patient in his 70s who had recently had chemotherapy for cancer.

Blood samples showed the competition between different versions of the virus inside his body, with a mutant version (the Kent variant) eventually winning. The scary thing is he didn’t seem to have this on admission.

Despite being given convalescent plasma, sadly the patient died.

The scientists think that because his immune system had already been weakened (by chemotherapy), and the virus was given plenty of time to mutate, it was able to evolve. They suggest the convalescent plasma contributed, highlighting the care needed in treating ‘immunocompromised patients, where prolonged viral replication can occur, giving greater opportunity for the virus to mutate’.

With science on our side, we will come out on top. But this brings home the need for all of us not to give this wily virus an opportunity to spread.