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Seicair t1_j7hp047 wrote

Reply to comment by NotAnotherEmpire in (Virology) Has SARS-CoV-2 outcompeted all the other coronaviruses which have been called the ‘common cold’? by jsgui

Alpha came from an immunocompromised individual? I thought alpha and beta were pretty close to the original strain?

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PHealthy t1_j7hqjrj wrote

It's thought Delta evolved within an immunocompromised person(s) and Omicron was likely a spillover from humans to mice and back to humans.

https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMsb2104756

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1673852721003738

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Seicair t1_j7i6fy4 wrote

Both of those links were fascinating, I hadn’t heard that omicron probably jumped species!

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NotAnotherEmpire t1_j7hzrjv wrote

If Alpha had evolved gradually the UK or Denmark would have seen it with their massive surveillance programs. No one's reported an Alpha-in-progress.

Alpha had far more than the expected number of mutations and was materially different in behavior. Fortunately it didn't matter for vaccine targeting.

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Seicair t1_j7i4yh9 wrote

I somehow never heard that. I remember hearing Omicron came out of left field and it was thought to have evolved in an immunocompromised patient due to the sheer number of mutations. I thought Alpha and Beta were two notable strains that were more successful than other small mutations. Now that I look though, I see AB both have a significant number of mutations, just the spike was mostly unchanged.

Fascinating. I studied some microbiology/immunology in school, I would’ve liked to have delved deeper.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8714679/#:~:text=delta)%2C%20B.-,1.1.,of%20these%20variants%20%5B1%5D.

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