Can new variants of the coronavirus keep emerging?

By CHRISTINA LARSON
AP Science Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) — The coronavirus that caused the pandemic can keep evolving as long as people are still getting infected, but that doesn’t mean new variants will emerge as regularly or that they’ll be more dangerous. When a virus infects people and replicates inside them, small mutations can occur as it makes copies of itself. That doesn’t mean the virus will keep evolving as quickly as it has over the past 18 months. Still, experts are watching to see whether new variants could be better at evading the immunity from vaccination and infections. If that happens, vaccine formulas might be updated.