WAUSAU, WI (WSAU) — Doctors from Aspirus Health provided some insight into how vaccination can help stop the mutation of diseases like COVID-19, as the Omicron variant continues to spread in the US and worldwide.
Senior System Physician Executive of Specialty Care Dr. Michael Walters says the more a virus spreads, the more it mutates. “A variant is a virus that has changed in some way, a slight deviation from its original form – a mutation if you will – that causes it to attack the body in a different way.”
Walters says that means vaccinations can play a role in keeping diseases like COVID-19 from mutating. “Vaccines limit the spread of the virus. In doing so, that decreases the amount of the virus in the environment. When that happens, there is less opportunity for the virus to mutate, causing [fewer] variants.”
He adds with a new variant it is important to remember that scientists are still learning about how the new strain will behave. “What we know so far is it may cause less severe illness, but maybe more easily transmittable. However, this data is really preliminary and I would say that the research so far is not full. Meaning there may be more research that comes out that proves it may be more infections, or less transmittable. We just don’t know yet.”
Walters maintains that vaccinations remain the best way to avoid serious illness or hospitalization from COVID-19.
