text_1: Every time somebody new gets the Ebola virus, it mutates.
text_2: Beck warned that every time someone new gets the Ebola virus, it mutates. First, mutation and replication go hand in hand and infecting a new person doesn’t change that. But the much larger point is that Beck is painting mutations with a broad brush. Most of them hurt the virus and are automatic dead-ends. Of those that don’t actually hurt it, about two-thirds don’t change how Ebola functions. Of those that change how the virus functions, there’s no data to say whether the functional changes matter. However, the most recent study in West Africa found that many new varieties are not passed on to new victims. Beck’s statement about Ebola mutations is partially accurate but leaves out important details.