In looking at how a tiny virus can bring the world to its knees, one need only look to the power of Darwinian evolution. All living things can evolve, but the virus can evolve a lot faster — in days rather than centuries.
Evolution won’t necessarily favor forms of the virus that are more deadly, or cause more severe illness — the virus gets no benefit from our deaths. But evolution does favor viruses that are more contagious. A previous mutationseems to have increased the transmissibility of the virus in Europe early in 2020, and that’s the version that ran rampant across the U.S. last year. Now there are at least two new variants, both apparently more transmissible still — one discovered in South Africa and another that’s fast expanding outward from the UK. It’s already been found at least three U.S. states and 33 countries.
