Apparently the virus in Houston has mutated...

“It is safe to say this version is more infectious.”

They are also saying that it may not be as deadly.

I believe this is just a new article reflecting the fact that the European strain, once it traveled outside Europe, has taken over in most areas.

The articles I have read stated it was no more deadly than the original Wuhan strain. That doesn't mean LESS deadly.

the testing is really hit or miss IMO.

i know two people who went to get tested because they knew they were exposed. both negative. wait a few days and they both have it. so running to get tested is kind of a waste of time.

    What about homeschooling do you feel you are terrible at doing?  Is it getting your children to complete their work in the hybrid homeschooling that their teachers set up this past school year?  I completely admire all of the teachers for their dedication and the enormous amount of work they've dedicated to their students during this time. 

But there is another way. What about traditional homeschooling instead?  There are a ton of homeschooling curriculums out there-enough to suit every student. And opposite to what I thought colleges actually seek out homeschooling students instead of turning them away. I homeschooled my DS from grades 6-12. I chose a curriculum from a school called oakmeadow.com  We used it for all 6 years and loved it. The even have an option of having a teacher check your child's work and grade it which we chose for the first two years-it gave both of us additional support and especially let me know we were on the right path. 

The only bad part is obviously it isn't free, but for me it was well worth it. DS graduated and went to community college for his first two years of colllege. This was the plan all along. Then he transferred to a University to pursue his degree in film and graduated with great grades. His teachers loved him and he's now editing commercials and loves his job. He's still in touch with several of his teachers from college. 

If you have any questions about homeschooling please PM me. You don't have to be an expert in every subject. I couldn't remember my math that well so we hired a math tutor for that subject. DS has ADD and it was very difficult sometimes to get him interested in doing his work which is what I loved about homeschooling. It wasn't all about endless paper and book lessons all of the time. We also did a ton of field trips when we could and that helped bring back the love of learning to him. Living within an hour of the Smithsonian museums helped a lot too with that. 

and that's why there will probably be an issue with a vaccine - if this one mutates easily making a vaccine just got a whole lot harder.

I'd guess it depends... on what kind of virus it is, what the mutation is, on what mechanism the vaccine targets, etc.  We know, for instance, that if we get a flu shot (say, flu strain A), but some other strain shows up (flu strain B), that we may get some protection from the shot we did get.  But if it's a really out there variation (H1N1, bird flu, etc.) then maybe the basic vaccine doesn't help so much.

Or maybe flu's a terrible analogy because covid is nothing like the flu.  But that's my recollection of high school biology.

Thank you Eddie-n-Harley and ashley!

Who cares?

What is important is that you all make sure OP is correct about her title and is correct with semantics.

<I cannot roll my eyes any more>

That's why there's no vaccine for the common cold, because it mutates so quickly that it's not possible to create a vaccine for any one strain....there are hundreds out there.
It's also why we need a new flu vaccine every year, because influenza virus also mutates quickly & erratically and that's also why they have try to predict the 3 or 4 most serious strains each year and include those in the vaccine...because of rapid mutations there are many different strains and it's not possible to have a vaccine that protects people against all of them. Therefore they try to predict the ones likely to be the biggest problem each year.
They do think that it is likely that if you have been vaccinated against one strain, then potentially if you get sick with a similar strain, then you might not get quite as sick as if you were unvaccinated. However that's more good luck than cold hard science.
Some viruses however are quite stable and don't mutate and we can use the same vaccine for many years.

No-one yet knows exactly how this corona virus will act, but in general, the more rapidly a virus mutates, the harder it is to develop a vaccine. Corona viruses are RNA viruses and they are known to mutate and change more quickly than DNA viruses.
They are talking about different strains developing here as well. A new strain doesn't always mean it's "worse" it may in fact be weaker, but if it is one that mutates easily then it will create more problems in developing a vaccine. 
And let's not forget that we have not yet developed a vaccine for any other corona virus for humans.

I read this article about the “mysteriously low” death rates from corona virus in Japan. Apparently people there are showing a unique immune response which happens only when a person has already been exposed to the same virus and has already launched an immune response to it. There’s lots unknown still, and many unanswered questions, and other hypotheses about why the death rate is so low there, but it is an interesting piece of evidence and brings a bit of hope that perhaps we can develop immunity to corona virus.

www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-53188847

Keep,in mind that viruses don’t “want” to kill their hosts, they just want to replicate. So a virus that is deadly is going to die out sooner as it will run out of hosts. If the virus mutates to spread faster but be less dangerous, the chances of relocating are higher - people who aren’t dying are more likely to go out and spread it to new hosts. It’s not uncommon for the less deadly strains to pop up, and if they are less dangerous, they can pass through the population without as much damage - and if they give some sort of immunity, that would be helpful.

And not to jump on the bandwagon of depressing thoughts, but...There was some thought early-ish on with AIDS that there would be an HIV vaccine within a matter of a couple of years or so. We're 40 years down the road and nothing. Now, HIV did get a slow start in the beginning due to the "moral majority" powers that be thinking 1- that it was "just" a virus of gay people so who cares, and 2- that even once it was confirmed in Africa and Europe, it was largely prostitutes and their clients for a while. HIV is a retrovirus which is different from coronavirus, but they both use that RNA pathway which seems to me to indicate there may be some extra challenges here. I hope I'm completely wrong.