An article published recently from a renowned news outlet claims that the new COVID-19 mutation makes mask-wearing, social distancing, and handwashing useless. But is there any truth behind this claim?

Mask-wearing
(Photo : Reutersconnect)
People wearing facemask to protect themselves against COVID-19.

Measures like mask-wearing, social distancing, and hand washing are three basic ways on how to protect ourselves against the infectious and deadly COVID-19. However, an article published in The New York Post on Sept. 24 claimed these measures are all useless due to virus mutation. 

The said article was eventually taken down, according to a report from The Washington Post which was published on Sept. 23. The original article cited the pre-print study by Long et al. However, there are parts in the original source which was not included in the New York Post article. 

Lack of peer review and evidence

Scientists reviewed the article published by The New York Post and they found out that it contained inaccurate, misleading information, and has low scientific credibility. A virologist and assistant professor at Duke-NUS Medical School Danielle Anderson asserted that the pre-print does not contain any data that supports the claim of the headline. 

A preprint research or study means it does not yet been peer-reviewed by other scientists. This means that the study published in The New York Post did not undergo into an in-depth study to determine the holes and pitfalls. Only peer-reviewed studies are considered to be credible. 

"There is no evidence or implied evidence in the preprint that the physical properties of a G clade virus (a strain carrying the D614G mutation) would render that strain resistant to the detergent used in hand-washing. Nor were there aerosol studies in the preprint which indicate that physical distancing is ineffective against strains with the D614G mutation," says Anderson.

Latin Post also reported on the mutation of the virus. According to a previous article, the mutation of the virus remains the same in terms of the severity of symptoms but the only difference is that it is three to nine times more infectious. 

Meanwhile, the new mutation is dubbed as D614G and this was first observed in many virus samples collected in China and Germany in late January 2020 by Korber and his fellow researchers. They also said that the virus is re transmissible compared to the first one. 

Moreover, the claim that D614G bypass measures such as hand-washing, social distancing, and mask-wearing were somehow supported by David Morens, U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and senior adviser to NIAID Director Anthony Fauci.

However, the current evidence does not support the claim of the article. The preprint by Long et al. never investigated whether virus strains with the D614G mutation were better at overcoming mask-wearing and handwashing. There are other scientists who expressed their opposition to the claim of the article. 

Although the information published in the Washington Post is more accurate than in The New York Post, it was found out that The New York Post gained more interactions and shares in social media, according to the CrowdTangle. 

Check these out!