It’s not exactly breaking news that the novel coronavirus is evolving. Dangerous new variants—also called mutations, or “lineages”—have been cropping up all over the world since last fall, complicating efforts to end the pandemic.
The big question is, what will the virus do next? To some scientists, the fact that many of the new lineages feature identical mutations—despite appearing separately in different parts of the world—means the SARS-CoV-2 pathogen is running out of ways to evolve. But another school of thought suggests the coronavirus has plenty of tricks left up its genetic sleeve.
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