How do Covid-19 variants happen? | Wellcome

All viruses naturally mutate and new variants of a virus are expected to occur over time. Sometimes new variants will emerge and disappear. But every once in a while, a virus strikes lucky by mutating in a way that helps it survive and reproduce. Given the right epidemiological settings, viruses carrying these mutations can then increase in frequency.

To give the virus less chance to mutate we need to increase the pace of research into Covid-19 treatments and vaccines and expand vaccine rollout globally.