Quote:
Originally Posted by coffeebean
This is my take......viruses need hosts to perpetuate their 'dirty deeds' and circulate in the population. Without hosts to give viruses the ability to replicate, then the mutations will not be able to occur. That is how my mind understands the process. Masking and distancing from others, in simple terms, minimizes the spread of the virus. So....in turn, the virus mutations are also minimized. No???? Please explain where I'm going wrong with my thinking if that is actually the case. I value your expertise.
I'm aware you are not a fan of masking and I'll never understand that because you are a physician so I've always been baffled by your stance on masking. I am grateful, though, that you feel distancing is excellent for virus mitigation.
I found this informative explanation about virus mutations..........
How Do Viruses Mutate and What it Means for a Vaccine? | Breakthroughs |
Interesting. I guess I haven't expressed myself clearly in previous posts. I am not against masking, just can't see any value in "useless" making. Indoors, in a crowd, and when unable to socially distance a mask is valuable to reduce COVID spread. Alone in your house or car, outdoors more than 6 feet away from others---pretty useless. I was at Disney last week, at the edge of the parking lot of Magic Kingdom, and got a phone call. The person on the other end couldn't hear me well through my mask, so I lowered it. I was more than 100 yards from the next person, yet a security person came flying out of nowhere in a cart and yelled for me to put my mask back on. Totally
IDIOTIC. Not that it was his fault, just doing what he was told, But the policy maker must be a MORON.
As for as mutations, you are right in general----the less virus circulating the less the odds of a mutation, although viruses tend to mutate in the wild anyway. If there was NO virus then there would be NO mutations. Also realize, even in viruses, just like people, most random mutations are fatal (to the virus). Apparently there are now over 4,000 mutations, but only 3 of them (UK, S. Africa, and Brazil) have had any medical significance (so far)