COVID Mutations
The bad thing about COVID is, it mutates. Mutate means a change or a cause to change. COVID is a very smart virus.
When a virus gets inside your body, it infects cells and programs those cells to reproduce more viruses like the original. The longer the virus stays in your body, the more it multiplies. Then, your body's white blood cells, its protectors, come to the rescue. When the white blood cells come in, they destroy the virus and its infected cells, and the heat of the battle in your body results in a fever.
The first time a virus gets into your body, the white blood cells don't recognize it for a while, allowing the virus to infect more cells. That's why when you get a virus inside your body for the first time, you have the worst symptoms. The next time a virus of that type infects your body, your white blood cells know what to do and spot the virus quickly, eliminating it with slighter ease.
Unfortunately, with COVID, it mutates, or changes itself, so that every time it enters a body, it looks different. This allows COVID to sneak in with a disguise on to do more damage.
Sadly, in some COVID patients, the virus infects them so bad before the white blood cells recognize them that they outnumber your white blood cells and take over your body.
Different mutations of COVID are called different variants and sometimes do different things as well. For example, one of the worst variants of the coronavirus was the Delta variant. It was the worst variant and took over your body quickly, so Delta was the cause of a lot of COVID deaths.
Now, the latest large variant is one called Omicron. Omicron is less deadly, but it transmits easier, leading to more cases and less deaths.
The main point is, COVID is a smart virus, and you should get vaccinated against each major variant.
By Armaan Dhawan