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Seems like the virus has a greater chance of spreading when its host is behaving more social.
by jozydapozy 8y ago
Seems like the virus has a greater chance of spreading when its host is behaving more social.
- mirimir 8y agoThat's a freaky (sorry, but it fits) idea. I mean, it does seem that rabies increases the likelihood that its hosts will bite others. And respiratory viruses cause sneezing. So it's not impossible that selection pressure could drive viruses to modify behavior of hosts in other ways. Something like black-box decompiling.
- punnerud 8y agoOr you are more likely to get help if you are a bit more thankful than normally
- loa-in-backup 8y agoThat's a very good counterpoint. Human species did evolve to be social "pack" creatures already.
- empath75 8y agoI have a probably TMI story about a case of food poisoning my wife and I had that was prefaced by us being especially frisky for a few hours — we even both said something to each other about how unusual it was. I’ve always wondered if there was a connection.
- azernik 8y agoFevers are a response of the human immune system, and so are subject to human selection pressures.
- lultimouomo 8y agoBut pathogens have a selective pressure to game the host immune system in spreading them further
- klipt 8y agoYep https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/darwins-subterranean-world/201801/does-the-flu-trick-people-being-sociable https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/darwins-subterranean...