James Gorman  1 hr ago

Potential for New Coronaviruses May Be Greater Than Known (msn.com)

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Major winter storm unleashes ice, snow, record cold across USMike Greenberg Has A Blunt Message For The Dallas CowboysPotential for New Coronaviruses May Be Greater Than Known

As the coronavirus continues to evolve, the scientific and public health focus has been on new variants in which a few mutations make the virus more infectious, or even, it may be, more deadly.© Linh Pham/Getty ImagesPalm civets, the animal from which SARS seemed to have spilled over to humans, were identified in the study as a potential hot spot for coronavirus evolution.

These changes in the virus are all what scientists call point mutations, the substitution of one tiny bit of genetic code for another. Coronaviruses, as a group, are not known to mutate rapidly, but the pandemic caused by the virus SARS-CoV-2 means that…