[nudephil (OP)]

Jonathan asks:

Will our future generations build an immunity to the coronavirus, or will it be subject to particular mutations like the flu virus?

[alancalverd]

It has already mutated several hundred times, some variants having maybe twice the infectivity of the parent archetype but with little significance regarding its severity or lethality.

Since the virus (so far) tends only to kill its oldest hosts, it imposes very little immediate evolutionary pressure on humans. However if it decreases fertility, then those humans with the greatest resistance will breed more successfully in the coming decades. 

[set fair]

It doesn't mutate half as fast as flu (because it proof reads each copy of itself) but it is robust enough that it it can stand a lot of mutations. It may end up becoming just another 'common cold causing' corona virus or it may end up killing tens of millions. Nobody knows.

The thing that stands out most about CoV2 is that it is very infectious.

[evan_au]

If we manage to eradicate COVID-19 by vaccinating all humans (and our cats and mink, etc) and stamp out COVID-19, then future generations won't need to become immune, because they won't be exposed to COVID-19.
- Until another virus jumps from animals into humans and sets off a different pandemic...

If we don't eradicate COVID-19, because it mutates fast enough to evade the vaccination (or the vaccination wears off after a year or two):
- Then it might become like seasonal flu, where we need a repeat vaccination every year, or every couple of years.

Children seem to develop mild symptoms (mostly). So it may become like some other diseases, where most people catch it as infants, and adults are immune.
- But other coronaviruses come back every 2-3 years, so lifetime immunity seems unlikely
- The "long COVID" impacts on multiple organs (eg "COVID toes") also affects children, so it is probably best to vaccinate children, to avoid this.

Early results (reported in this week's podcast) indicates that some people have a deficient immune response to the virus, leading to severe COVID.
- This response may be genetic or environmental - it's too early to tell
- If it is genetic, then people with this gene variant may die more quickly, leaving the rest of the population less susceptible to the disease
- If it is environmental, we may be able to control the environmental factor(s) leading to susceptibility
- Regardless of whether it is genetic or environmental (or both), if these susceptible people can be identified (eg by some blood marker), then maybe only these people need to be vaccinated (say) every 2 years.
- The others can "tough it out" like any cold, or choose to be vaccinated every 2 years.

[Bored chemist]

Humans are becoming immune to it.
Two things contribute to this; the first is simple; the susceptible ones die; the ones left are therefore less susceptible.
That seems to be the plan Boris is relying on.

On the other hand, many of our children have already had the bug. Almost all have survived (I know that even one failure of that idea is a personal tragedy, but it's unimportant from the species perspective).

Since they have shaken off the infection, they are almost certainly going to be less affected by it next time they catch it.
Assuming we don't eradicate it, they will grow up and, from time to time, they will catch the most recent variants- the ones that are "different enough" that their immune system has to do some work- but given that they will have some residual immunity, it's likely that they will not be greatly harmed.

Eventually,  say a hundred years from now, everyone will have grown up with this. It won't have harmed them as very young children. And it won't harm them as adults because they will already have a viable immune response to it.

In effect, it's quite possible that it will simply become another "common cold"- like the ones that are caused by coronaviruses today.

There are two problems with that idea.
First, there's no guarantee that it works; we may not be able to mount a reliable immune response.

The second is that we have lost 2 million people, and we are not anywhere close to finished yet.