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The thing about viruses, especially Corona viruses is that they mutate. The chance of mutation grows with infection rates. So letting the virus run its course
by Jemm 6y ago
The thing about viruses, especially Corona viruses is that they mutate. The chance of mutation grows with infection rates.
So letting the virus run its course is not as simple as people would like to believe. If we do let the virus infect 60 to 70% of the population, we vastly increase the risk of a much worse pandemic.
Personally I think that the people who want to re-open the most are rich people who realize that they stand to lose a lot of money both by not getting the income from an active economy and secondly by higher taxes and asset nationalization from governments who are going to have to support lost income and social services.
My final thought is that many people now perceive the virus as mainly targeting elderly, poor, frail, drug addicted and ethnic communities; which sadly many people consider to be acceptable losses.
- tonyedgecombe 6y agoIt could mutate to become less deadly although I'm not sure what pressures would cause that. The Spanish flu got worse in the second wave, it killed many more otherwise healthy 25-35 year olds.
- majkinetor 6y agoThe evolution dictates that it should become less deadly because dead host mostly means dead virus and live host may mean more live viruses.
- gremlinsinc 6y agoExcept it's showing to mutate pretty damn fast and some of the mutations are way deadlier, don't know which 'came first' or how that proves one way or the other that it'll get worse or better. The are currently > 30 known mutations: https://nypost.com/2020/04/21/coronavirus-has-mutated-into-at-least-30-different-strains-study/ https://nypost.com/2020/04/21/coronavirus-has-mutated-into-a... But a lot of deadliest viruses kill fast and are less viral, so only way to spread is become less lethal. This virus has the luxury of being both deadly AND extremely viral (because it takes it's time killing people). Even if you don't die, nobody knows the long term effects of the virus on lungs, kidneys, heart, etc... So, while a lot of diseases do mutate to be less severe, that doesn't need to be the case with Sars-cov-2.