Covid ‘morphed into stomach bug’ as experts fear it’s targeting people’s guts
Covid might have morphed into a stomach bug, some scientists fear. Experts reckon the virus’s JN.1 strain could be targeting our tummies, despite historically brutalizing the respiratory system. Now, some virologists reckon that the killer disease has altered its criteria for the entering of cells and is now potentially zeroing in on the gut.
Now boffins claim to be finding more and more traces of the disease in wastewater. Stomach bugs are shed in the waste of people with viruses. Jn.1 is the strain behind a recent spike in Covid case numbers.
Molecular virologist and professor of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology at the University of Missouri, Marc Johnson, said: There were some huge spikes in wastewater in Europe, and a lot of us were pondering what the possible explanations could be – whether it’s just a lot of cases or whether there’s some other explanation.
Examples of their findings have begun to pop up around the world. In Austria, indicating the viral load, some 700 gene copies per person have been detected compared to zero in July of this year.
It has been hypothesized that the change could be a mutilation by the virus to get around immunity. According to the outlet, it was noted by Prof Johnson that it was possible the virus could be attacking the gut – at the time of writing that claim remains unverified.
He said that a number of coronaviruses infect the gut so it wouldn’t be that surprising.
He added: A lot of the coronaviruses cause GI problems. There are ones in cats and pigs, in bats. They aren’t respiratory infections – they’re GI infections.
