Q: Why do you compare this virus (SARS-CoV-2) to the Influenza virus? Isn’t’ it much more closely related to the SARs, MERs viruses?
A: I was referring to probabilities of developing medications and vaccine to SARS-CoV-2 and influenza viruses. These are on par with each other.
Both influenza and SARS-CoV-2 have relatively (un)stable genome. I use “relatively” because a number of mutations might not be that great: there exist roughly 4 to 10 genetic differences between the origin virus from Wuhan and the strains currently circulating in the United States, but there are also strains isolated in Italy, India, Korea, Spain, etc. By 12 January 2020, five genomes of SARS-CoV-2 had been isolated from Wuhan. The the number of genomes increased to 42 by 30 January 2020.
Please note that we are talking about the virus which was first identified in December. The influenza virus is the same. If you look at the CDC report from the last week, it spells out that we registered Influenza A (two strains) and Influenza B (two strains).
Influenza A was represented by two strains:
(H1N1)pdm09
H3N2
Influenza B was also represented by two strains:
Yamagata lineage
Victoria lineage
Here is what CDC did to adjust to reality (AFTER THE FACT!): flu vaccines were updated to better match viruses EXPECTED to be circulating in the United States.
The A(H1N1)pdm09 vaccine component was updated from an A/Michigan/45/2015 (H1N1)pdm09-like virus to an A/Brisbane/02/2018 (H1N1)pdm09-like virus.
The A(H3N2) vaccine component was updated from an A/Singapore/INFIMH-16-0019/2016 A(H3N2)-like virus to an A/Kansas/14/2017 (H3N2)-like virus.
Both B/Victoria and B/Yamagata virus components from the 2018-2019 flu vaccine remain the same for the 2019-2020 flu vaccine.
Hence, we essentially have to deal with 4 different viruses! This is why influenza vaccine and drugs (designed to shorten a period of time one is sick – not really kill the virus!) work worse than a coin flip!
The very reason we have SARS-CoV, MERS and SARS-CoV-2 is mutations/evolution/cross-pollination between different coronaviruses and possibly others, just as influenza virus’s “drift” and “shift”. Read here How the Flu Virus Can Change: “Drift” and “Shift”