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Originally Posted by Robbie0723
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Some good need here...
"Fortunately, there's a built-in impediment to what might otherwise be a potentially endless march toward ever-more-dangerous variants: The virus will at some point run out of ways to become nastier, thanks to the relatively simple structure of the spike protein, which can only be mutated in a few hundred different ways, most of which won't make the virus more harmful. "There are only so many changes that can be made to the spike protein without making it non-functional," says Vail. "I'd be cautious about saying that it can keep mutating indefinitely."
Another big break: Unlike the flu virus, SARS-CoV-2 doesn't have a structure that lends itself to mixing and matching genetic material between different variants. That "recombination" capability is what helps make the flu a moving target each year for vaccines."