Viruses readily mutate. There is nothing surprising about this because it is their nature to do so. This happens due to the imperfect copying mechanism at work as viruses replicate in the cells of infected hosts.
The complete set of genetic information needed to sustain an organism, such as the virus, is its genome, which, in the case of viruses, can be made up either of the DNA or the RNA molecule. The DNA and the RNA can be thought of as a string of (genetic) letters, and a genome can be imagined to be long stretches of these letters with different parts of it encoding for different proteins required for the organism’s existence. Mutations are just random errors that occur during the process of copying these letters during viral multiplication and such errors accumulate during every replicating cycle, which can occur within hours or even less. RNA viruses mutate faster than DNA viruses because their replication mechanism is intrinsically more error-prone. Likewise single-stranded viruses mutate more often than double-stranded ones.
Viruses cannot exist in isolation; they need a host to replicate and survive. Mutations generate a diversity of virus population in a single infected host. This amazing ability of viruses to mutate is what drives their evolutionary change. Most mutations may be inconsequential. But mutations that adversely affect some virus function or the other, which impede its sustenance, will get removed by natural selection. If during an outbreak, a mutated virus with a greater (or lesser) degree of infectivity or virulence were to appear in a population, it does not immediately follow that the mutation will sustain and continue to spread with high frequency, unless it gives the virus a selective advantage as instances during the current COVID-19 pandemic that we consider below illustrate.
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Sarpanchs as game changers
Odisha manages to keep COVID-19 well under control because of the strong participation of panchayati raj institutions and the community at the grass-roots level under the leadership of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik.
New worries
Kerala’s measured approach to the pandemic and lockdown has yielded results. But it still has to grapple with their huge economic impact on its economy, which it feels the Centre’s special financial relief package does little to alleviate.
Capital's Malthusian moment
In a world that needs substantial reorienting of production and distribution, Indian capital is resorting to a militant form of moribund neoliberalism to overcome its current crisis. In this pursuit of profit, it is ready and willing to throw into mortal peril millions whom it adjudicates as not worth their means—an admixture of social Darwinism born of capital’s avarice and brutalism spawned by Hindutva. .
Waiting for Jabalpur moment
The Supreme Court’s role in ensuring executive accountability during the ongoing lockdown leaves much to be desired. Standing in shining contrast is the record of some High Courts.
An empty package
The Modi regime, which has been unable to control the COVID-19 infection, restore economic activity and provide relief to millions exposed to starvation, trains its sights on Indian democracy, making use of the panic generated by fear and a lockdown that forecloses paths of resistance.
Job Offers Withdrawn, Internships Now Unpaid
Engineering and business school graduates stare at a bleak future as job offers are withdrawn or revised, while delays in joining dates add to the climate of uncertainty.
In search of a road map
It is now increasingly clear that the government did not think through and provide for the consequences of the lockdown.
Clueless captain
As the nation longs for relief from the pandemic and the economic misery caused by an ill-planned lockdown, the government prefers symbolism over substance, exposing its lack of meaningful leadership.
RISING TREND
There are no signs of any let-up in the COVID case numbers well into the third phase of the lockdown even as issues of violation of physical distancing norms, mistreatment of front-line health workers, inadequate public health infrastructure and increasing distress among the poor come to the fore in most States, besides of course the low testing numbers and haphazard screening and isolation of suspect cases.
Dystopian pipe dream
The reluctance of the Narendra Modi regime to extend fiscal support to those in real need of help during a prolonged lockdown suggests that it is promoting further concentration of capital. Dire consequences await the economy and the polity.
