What's the difference between Mutations, variants & Strains? COVID terminology

[bob10]

Living through a global pandemic over the past year has seen all of us expanding our vocabularies. We now understand terms like PPE, social distancing and contact tracing.
But just when perhaps we thought we had a handle on most of the terminology, we’re faced with another set of new words: mutation, variant and strain.





What's the difference between mutations, variants and strains? A guide to COVID terminology (theconversation.com) (https://theconversation.com/whats-the-difference-between-mutations-variants-and-strains-a-guide-to-covid-terminology-154825?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=The%20Weekend%20Conversation%20-%201861018146&utm_content=The%20Weekend%20Conversation%20-%201861018146+CID_01d29bbf5087415f9ab76c888b8311ff&utm_source=campaign_monitor&utm_term=Whats%20the%20difference%20between%20muta tions%20variants%20and%20strains%20A%20guide%20to% 20COVID%20terminology)

[bob10]

Viruses can’t replicate and spread on their own. They need a host, and they need to hijack the cells of the host to replicate. When they replicate in a host, they face the challenge of duplicating their genetic material. For many viruses, this isn’t an exact process and their offspring often contain errors — meaning they’re not exact copies of the original virus.
These errors are referred to as mutations, and viruses with these mutations are called variants. Often, these mutations don’t affect the biological properties of the virus. That is, they don’t have any effect on how the virus replicates or causes disease.

UK, South African, Brazilian: a virologist explains each COVID variant and what they mean for the pandemic (theconversation.com) (https://theconversation.com/uk-south-african-brazilian-a-virologist-explains-each-covid-variant-and-what-they-mean-for-the-pandemic-154547)