Curious about what the recent mutations of #COVID-19 mean? Read this.

A year ago, some people thought the course of the pandemic could be foretold according to simple formulas. As the complexities of coronavirus have become apparent, scientists have grown less confident in their predictions, and left a lot of us feeling like WTF?

The recent strains have somewhat blindsided us because we hadn’t fully realised how the coronavirus tends to mutate — in a way that’s distinct from influenza or HIV—which COVID has been compared or likened to. It turns out that coronavirus has a talent for shape-shifting by dropping pieces of its genetic code.

Why does this matter? COVID-19 may mutate and any new variant that can elude antibodies — whether they be our own aka our immune system, or come from vaccinations.

So, vaccinations, are they worthwhile or not? I’ve been left wondering if I’m not high-risk, a front-line healthcare worker, young, not planning on that much travel in the near future, do I make the choice to get vaccinated if it is a choice?

What does this mean, for real? If the coronavirus develops an anti-vaccine strategy, we will need a counter-strategy.

The good news? The number of mutations is likely limited, so these strains and variants won’t go on forever. And if we study data on the patients who have gotten COVID-19 despite being vaccinated, we will likely find answers there.

The bottom line? I’m not saying to get vaccinated or not, but either way, data from being vaccinated will help us all move forward, together.

Love to travel? If you're like me and a travel lover, it will likely be a must to be vaccinated to travel to our desired destinations. It’s up to each country to protect it’s own people as they see fit, and one way is to make our vaccination documents similar to how we have our passports—compulsory before we begin our journey. Even then, it’s a possibility we will still need to isolate as there are no guarantees at this point.

Read more here.