Head of U.K. program that tracks COVID-19 variants says virus may have reached ‘plateau’ in terms of evolution Bookmark Please log in to listen to this story. Also available in French and Mandarin. Log In Create Free Account Getting audio file ... This translation has been automatically generated and has not been verified for accuracy. Full Disclaimer Kirsty Wigglesworth/The Associated Press The head of a British program that tracks variants of the COVID-19 virus says it may have hit “peak fitness” in terms of its ability to spread and evade vaccines. “We seem to have reached a relative plateau, if you like, of what the virus is doing in terms of evolution,” said Sharon Peacock, director of the COVID-19 Genomics UK consortium, or COG-UK. “It could be that there’s a point at which the virus has kind of optimal fitness in terms of transmissibility and evasion of immunity, and it may be that there will be a pause. What I don’t know is what happens after that.”