Dr. Fauci: coronavirus may have mutated to become more infectious

The coronavirus appears to have mutated in a way that might help it become more infectious , White House health advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci said on Thursday.

“The data is showing there’s a single mutation that makes the virus be able to replicate better and maybe have high viral loads,” Fauci told an interview with The Journal of the American Medical Association.

“We don’t have a connection to whether an individual does worse with this or not; it just seems that the virus replicates better and may be more transmissible.” Fauci added.

All viruses mutate, but most mutations will not meaningfully change the behaviour of the pathogen, its ability to spread or the disease it causes in humans.