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The original was posted on /r/worldnews by /u/maztabaetz on 2023-09-25 22:33:24.
Use of antiviral may be fuelling evolution of Covid, scientists say
Submitted 2 years ago by bot@lemmit.online [bot] to worldnews@lemmit.online
autotldr@lemmings.world [bot] 2 years ago
This is the best summary I could come up with:
There is no evidence molnupiravir has produced more dangerous variants of Covid, but scientists said the mutations increased the genetic diversity of the virus in the wild and provided more options for future evolution.
“People have some concerns about molnupiravir and to some sense this makes those more concrete,” said Dr Theo Sanderson, the lead author on the study and a postdoctoral researcher at the Francis Crick Institute in London.
Writing in the journal Nature, the scientists describe numerous strands of evidence that suggest molnupiravir can occasionally produce highly mutated but viable forms of the Covid virus.
As a final piece of evidence, the scientists picked out a number of viral samples in England that bore the signature mutations of molnupiravir and asked the UK Health Security Agency which patients had been treated with the drug.
One question scientists are keen to explore is whether drug-induced mutations explain an unusual finding in Oxford University’s Panoramic trial, which is investigating the effectiveness of Covid antivirals.
The Panoramic trial found molnupiravir did not reduce the risk of hospitalisation or death among vaccinated, high-risk patients faced with the Omicron variant, but it did speed up recovery time.
The original article contains 739 words, the summary contains 194 words. Saved 74%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!