For Only 2nd Time In History, The World Health Organization Calls An Emergency Meeting About a virus

[friendly_iconoclast]

6. Attention *needs* to be paid to coronaviruses- they mutate easily:

cdc.gov/eid/article/19/7/12-1094.htm

As with other RNA viruses, coronavirus replication is error-prone; the estimated mutation rate is ?4 × 10?4 nucleotide substitutions/site/year (13,14)

http://pathmicro.med.sc.edu/virol/coronaviruses.htm

Mutation and recombination

Coronaviruses have large RNA genomes replicated by a virus-encoded replicase/polymerase. RNA polymerases have no proof-reading capability and typically have an error rate of about 1 in 10,000 nucleotides. Since the genome of an average coronavirus is about 30kB, this means that there will be several mutations in each progeny virus. There are also many deletion mutations formed in coronaviruses. There is a very high frequency of recombination in coronaviruses which is not typical of non-segmented RNA viruses. This may be due to the discontinuous mode of RNA replication in which the leader sequence is made and then the leader/polymerase may jump to another strand. This high rate of recombination results in rapid evolution of the virus and the formation of new strains.

And with several million people as possible vectors/carriers present during the hajj season in SA,
this needs to be taken most seriously....