Abstract A recent study by Tang et al. claimed that two major types of severe acute respiratory syndrome-coronavirus-2 (CoV-2) had evolved in the ongoing CoV disease-2019 pandemic and that one of these types was more ‘aggressive’ than the other. Given the repercussions of these claims and the intense media coverage of these types of articles, we have examined in detail the data presented by Tang et al., and show that the major conclusions of that paper cannot be substantiated. Using examples from other viral outbreaks, we discuss the difficulty in demonstrating the existence or nature of a functional effect of a viral mutation, and we advise against overinterpretation of genomic data during the pandemic.
【저자키워드】 COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2, adaptation, 【초록키워드】 pandemic, media, Outbreaks, Coverage, CoV, genomic data, viral mutation, articles, examined, example, functional, claimed, 【제목키워드】 Evolution of SARS-CoV-2, Evidence,