Can scientists predict all of the ways the coronavirus will evolve?

[Still Waters]

Late last year, three distinct and fast-spreading coronavirus variants were observed in the UK, South Africa and Brazil. More recently, variants in India, the US and elsewhere are causing alarm. Does the emergence of these variants portend a protracted battle with the pandemic, or will the virus soon run out of evolutionary room to manoeuvre and settle down as a more benign, endemic pathogen?

Predictions about the evolutionary course of the virus, and specifically changes in virulence, will always be riddled with uncertainty. The vagaries of randomly mutating RNA, chaotic patterns of transmission and expansion, and partially understood forces of natural selection, present challenges to even the most insightful evolutionary soothsayer. Nevertheless, established evolutionary concepts, combined with a wealth of data from the virus itself, can at least provide some pointers.

https://theconversation.com/can-scientists-predict-all-of-the-ways-the-coronavirus-will-evolve-156673

[Raptor Witness]

Recombination is a concern to me, especially if 1 billion people, or more, end up infected with this lethal virus.

Macro infection phenomena are poorly understood, but a trend towards more virulence is what we saw in 1918, also.

Recombination

Viral recombination occurs when viruses of two different parent strains coinfect the same host cell and interact during replication to generate virus progeny that have some genes from both parents. Source