Life upon Earth is in evolution from matter to plants to animals to humans........ Does COVID-19 has a link with this evolutionary movement.
Regards
COVID-19 may affect human evolution.
https://www.calcalistech.com/ctech/articles/0,7340,L-3806775,00.html
Article Evolutionary Medicine: A Powerful Tool for Improving Human Health
Dear Dr Bodh R Sharma, this is an interesting question. I think the evolution is a very very long term process - the humankind either slowly develop immunity to this virus or become extinct. More of a chance to slowly evolve and after few generations humankind could co-live with this virus. Warm regards Yoganandan G
Respected Dr
Yoganandan G. My infinite reverence and gratitude.
Regards
Bodh
Since the beginning of the pandemic, scientists have wondered why SARS-CoV-2 affects people so differently. Some wind up on life support or die, while others don’t even notice they are infected. Most factors that tip this balance turned out to be more environmental than evolutionary. We now know that smoking, obesity, and conditions like cancer and diabetes can make COVID-19 more dangerous. Other research highlights how social inequalities and racial disparities contribute to higher infection, hospitalization, and death rates in some groups (e.g., Black and Hispanic Americans). However, studies have also revealed gene variants associated with increased risk, and one set of these has a deep evolutionary history among not just humans, but our ancient relatives: Neanderthals. https://evolution.berkeley.edu/evolibrary/news/201105_covid19_risk
Carrying a particular sequence on a stretch of DNA — about 50,000 bases located on human chromosome 3 — increases one’s odds of being hospitalized during a COVID-19 infection by about 60%. Now, we know that that genetic sequence came to us from Neanderthals. Of course, Neanderthals are not the ancestors of modern humans. We did not inherit this gene sequence from them like you might inherit brown eye color from your grandmother. Instead, Neanderthals are our evolutionary cousins; they, along with Denisovans, another lineage of early humans, coexisted on Earth for hundreds of thousands of years before Neanderthals and Denisovans went extinct. https://evolution.berkeley.edu/evolibrary/news/201105_covid19_risk
The chances of that are pretty high. Any disease that attacks us can change our genetics and, in a way, affect evolution. Pandemics influence evolution in two ways. One way is by killing off many people. Those who managed to survive due to a genetic advantage pass it to their offspring. The other way is by actually altering our genetic code. Around 8% of the human genome is made up of the remnants of ancient viruses that spread, infused into human cells, and left their genetic payload within them. https://m.calcalistech.com/Article.aspx?guid=3806775
“There are reports of men who contracted coronavirus and concentrations of it were discovered in their testicles, which means it could reach their offspring. It is possible that the changes to our genetic code are a type of correction that will grant us previously unseen traits, but we will only find out about them in the distant future. When that happens we may be able to understand why some people got sick while others did not. It may be the case that some of the people who died from the virus, particularly the younger ones, had an immune system that was good at coping with germs, but overreacted when it encountered the virus.” https://m.calcalistech.com/Article.aspx?guid=3806775