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LiberalArkie

(15,703 posts) Sun May 3, 2020, 10:45 AM May 2020

A question to all the DNA geeks out there. If there are around 30 different strains of Covid-19

circulating, do the tests detect all of them?

3 replies

= new reply since forum marked as read

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A question to all the DNA geeks out there. If there are around 30 different strains of Covid-19 (Original Post) LiberalArkie May 2020 OP

That is from one non-peer reviewed study. Phoenix61 May 2020 #1

Does it matter whether the pathogen is viral or bacterial? GreenPartyVoter May 2020 #2

It's an RNA virus. Not DNA. Igel May 2020 #3

Phoenix61

(16,994 posts)

1. That is from one non-peer reviewed study.

Reply to LiberalArkie (Original post)

Sun May 3, 2020, 11:42 AM

May 2020

so how many strains I’d still, IMHO, up for debate. There are several different types of Hepatitis-C and the test works for all of them. There are several different types of Lymes disease and the most common test does not pick up all of them. So, it would depend on the test.

GreenPartyVoter

(72,377 posts)

2. Does it matter whether the pathogen is viral or bacterial?

Reply to Phoenix61 (Reply #1)

Sun May 3, 2020, 11:46 AM

May 2020

Igel

(35,282 posts)

3. It's an RNA virus. Not DNA.

Reply to LiberalArkie (Original post)

Sun May 3, 2020, 12:23 PM

May 2020

And the differences are trivial, a few point mutations in the protein that make up the spikes and casing.

That's reflected in the RNA, of course, but it's still just a few point mutations.

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