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So a more more accurate description seems to be "there is no evidence that thinking of the viruses in terms of multiple strains is scientifically helpful".

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I’d refine that further to clinically relevant

Thinking of things that aren’t proven to exist is scientifically unhelpful?...

You, you are going to be crucified by scientists. :-)

More seriously, I get your point but many discoveries are done by finally observing something which existence has been anticipated, hypothesized but still unproven. A planet that had an effect on nearby objects because of its gravity for instance. Or the Higgs boson.

So, yes, thinking of things that are not proven to exist (yet) is often scientifically helpful.

You still want to apply Occam's razor of course.

You've cut the context, was that on purpose? The context is a discussion of improving medical interventions during the current pandemic, in that context, at present the argument is that 'considering Covid19 to be separate "strains" (isolates) will not help to treat patients'.

Is that clearer?

It’s not clearer, it’s a completely different statement. The idea of the answer to a question being “medically unhelpful” doesn’t seem at all related to “scientifically unhelpful”.

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