What’s the Difference Between a Strain and a Variant?

Variant and strain are often used interchangeably during the pandemic, although they have different meanings.

When a virus infects a host, it needs to replicate itself to target more cells.

However, these replicas might evolve and mutate in the process.

Strains have a demonstrably different functional property or behavior from the original virus.

Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, and Omicron are all variants of COVID-19.

This is where it gets tricky.

For some, the changes in Omicronor all of these variantsare significant enough to be considered strains.

Its a bit subjective when to use the term strain.

Will There Be More COVID-19 Variants?

Theres just no telling what its impact will be.

We remain observers of a complex phenomenon, Weiss told Verywell.

Until the last few months, we saw the rapid evolution of variants that then overtook others.

This can certainly happen again, but we cant yet predict when or how.

For the most recent updates on COVID-19, visit ourcoronavirus news page.

Chen KK, Tsung-Ning Huang D, Huang LM.SARS-CoV-2 variants evolution, spike protein, and vaccines.Biomed J.