Mutations, Changes, Variants, and Strains

What is a mutation?
A mutation is an alteration in the genetic material (the genome) of a cell of a living organism or of a virus that is more or less permanent and that can be transmitted to the cell’s or the virus’s descendants.

While mutations are a major contributor to evolution they are not always meaningful and in the case of pathogens not always a scary thing. Mutations happen all the time, both in microbes and larger organisms such as humans. Additionally, most mutations don't actually result in any noticeable change. This is because mutation is a random process. Randomly changing nucleotides in the genome of any organism or virus will much more often be deleterious than beneficial. 

A More Transmissible Variant?​

Sources

1. Britannica - mutation page
2. Emergence and rapid spread of a new severe acute respiratory syndrome-related coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) lineage with multiple spike mutations in South Africa (MedRxiv)
3. NERVTAG meeting on SARS-CoV-2 variant under investigation VUI-202012/01
4. NERVTAG/SPI-M Extraordinary meeting on SARS-CoV-2 variant of concern 202012/01 (variant B.1.1.7)
5. CDC - New Variants page
6. grinch | global report investigating novel coronavirus haplotypes