There are many SARS-CoV-2 strains with gene deletions
This is a follow up post to a previous post on mine on how we might look for a natural attenuated (mild) strain of SARS-CoV-2 by genome sequencing [0]. While the COG-UK has not been looking directly for such a strain, their data does show that strains with the right type of mutations do exists.While it might be possible to use a natural attenuated strain as a vaccine directly, the real value of having such a strain may be in using it as a safer test strain in a human challenge trial of a conventional vaccine. This could shave many months off us getting an effective vaccine for COVID-19 [1].0. https://www.tillett.info/2020/04/05/a-solution-to-covid-19/1. https://www.tillett.info/2020/04/24/it-is-unethical-to-not-s...