3 ms·
Do we know for sure that it* doesn't have an animal reservoir? [*] The common cold is a half dozen distinct viruses.
by nullc 7y ago
Do we know for sure that it* doesn't have an animal reservoir?
[*] The common cold is a half dozen distinct viruses.
- dehrmann 7y ago> The common cold is a half dozen distinct viruses. Some of them coronaviruses. It makes sense, but it's funny that we classify the common cold by symptoms, ignoring that the viruses are in different families.
- nickthemagicman 7y agoTrue. Maybe something like chickens or pigs could be an animal vector. Then a very minor mutation could make it infectious to humans.
- nullc 7y agoDoesn't even need the mutation. It may be that it is infectious with R0>1 to some other animals as is, but with few health effects so we don't notice it. If so, it'll just immediately get reintroduced to humans even if we distance it out of our population successfully. No mutations required.