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Comment by kmtrowbr | Hacker News Reader

common cold = caused by coronaviruses, COVID-19 = an uncommonly deadly coronavirus

RNA viruses have a faster mutation rate than DNA viruses.

Chickenpox = DNA virus, Coronavirus = RNA virus.

That Chickenpox is a DNA virus is why, like HIV, it can survive in the body for the long term and re-emerge decades later as shingles. DNA has a double helix which has error-correction and is more stable. However that makes it also physically larger and more complicated. RNA is small, sloppy, and cheap.

Source of all this: Spillover, David Quammen: https://www.amazon.com/Spillover-Animal-Infections-Human-Pan..., it's a good & topical book, a little bleak but good. There's a discussion of exactly this about halfway through the book.

So I do not believe your comment is factually correct. Sadly, the COVID-19 causing virus should have a high potential mutation rate similarly to all RNA viruses.

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Nope. The common cold is a catch-all term for over 200 different mild upper respiratory viruses, the clear majority of which are not coronaviruses. The most common strain of virus causing the common cold is a rhinovirus, which does have the property of mutating well and thus being hard to develop a resistance to. It is true that some of the common cold strains are coronavirus, but not most of them, and regardless, they aren't COVID-19 (which is of recent zoonotic origin). Preliminary analysis of COVID-19 indicates that catching it once is likely to confer life-long immunity.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_cold https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coronavirus

It seems like you know more than I do -- that's good news, thank you for correcting me! I was wrong about coronavirus causing all forms of the common cold. They only cause 15%, whereas rhinoviruses as you say, cause 30–80%.

Still, "the Coronavirus" COVID-19 causing virus is an RNA virus correct? Those mutate rapidly & in fact, evading immune systems via rapid evolution, is part of what has allowed RNA viruses to exist & thrive.

This fact of being an RNA virus, might be one reason that making a vaccine is difficult & that long term immunity is in question: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RNA_virus#Mutation_rates

> Preliminary analysis of COVID-19 indicates that catching it once is likely to confer life-long immunity.

I wasn't able to find this in your links. Regardless, I hope that is the case.

There's a lot, lot, lot more to it than simply saying that it's a DNA vs an RNA virus and that one categorically mutates faster than the other. The most relevant factor here is that COVID-19 only has a single strand of RNA, whereas e.g. influenza has 8. This allows a lot more mutation from pieces of RNA swapping around between different strands, which just can't happen on COVID-19. You can sort of think of it as analogous to sexual vs asexual reproduction; the former has a lot more potential for variation. Plus there's factors relating to the specific mechanism that coronaviruses use to attach to animal cells that make them less capable of mutating into any sort of a different shape that's still effective at all.

And I'm nothing close to an expert on any of this. But refer to sources, e.g.:

https://www.businessinsider.com/new-coronavirus-mutates-slow...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/the-coronavirus-isnt-m...

https://www.businessinsider.com/new-coronavirus-mutates-slow...

Thanks for sharing -- great link, I learned something, thank you.

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