This is a wonderful overview of how mutations arise and the consequences of mutations. The case examples were very interesting and showed how many variants can arise over time even in just one person. I would think a drug such as molnupiravir (nucleoside analog) would be helpful in such cases where current mAB treatments are not effective - especially as a last ditch effort to save lives of older (non-child bearing age) patients. Although data from India for molnupiravir is not looking good for severe disease. So much we don’t know yet…
I think the main issue we are having is that no one is exactly examining this with a broad perspective. If we look at viral mutations we should be looking at it from an evolutionary biology perspective, meaning we should think about adaptations and randomness.
Do you have data on that? It would make sense if we consider that molnupiravir is an antiviral and that late stage disease would lean towards the chronic inflammation/cytokine storm and less towards viral replication.
That makes sense and no, they don’t seem to have any data available publicly (surprise). It seems like the drive to have the first vaccine or the first approved drug is more desirable than to actually have an effective vaccine or a medicine that could prevent SARS-COV-2 from causing severe disease. From the beginning of the pandemic I wondered why they didn’t focus on those who were experiencing the anaphylactic-like symptoms- most people do fine without any treatment.
This is a wonderful overview of how mutations arise and the consequences of mutations. The case examples were very interesting and showed how many variants can arise over time even in just one person. I would think a drug such as molnupiravir (nucleoside analog) would be helpful in such cases where current mAB treatments are not effective - especially as a last ditch effort to save lives of older (non-child bearing age) patients. Although data from India for molnupiravir is not looking good for severe disease. So much we don’t know yet…
I think the main issue we are having is that no one is exactly examining this with a broad perspective. If we look at viral mutations we should be looking at it from an evolutionary biology perspective, meaning we should think about adaptations and randomness.
Do you have data on that? It would make sense if we consider that molnupiravir is an antiviral and that late stage disease would lean towards the chronic inflammation/cytokine storm and less towards viral replication.
That makes sense and no, they don’t seem to have any data available publicly (surprise). It seems like the drive to have the first vaccine or the first approved drug is more desirable than to actually have an effective vaccine or a medicine that could prevent SARS-COV-2 from causing severe disease. From the beginning of the pandemic I wondered why they didn’t focus on those who were experiencing the anaphylactic-like symptoms- most people do fine without any treatment.