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I'm not any epidemiologist, so if someone knows more please correct me, but I read that viruses with a high mortality rate are much easier to contain. Mainly be
by bibabaloo 6y ago
I'm not any epidemiologist, so if someone knows more please correct me, but I read that viruses with a high mortality rate are much easier to contain. Mainly because the virus more naturally dies out as it kills its hosts. That was one of the reasons that SARS didn't reach pandemic scale with its 10% mortality rate.
I have to wonder if Covid-19 is in the 'sweet spot' of dangerousness, as it has a mortality rate that doesn't hamper its ability to spread but still kills a lot of people.
- amelius 6y agoI suppose that if the incubation period is long enough the virus can have an arbitrary mortality rate and still spread.
- gridlockd 6y agoIncubation period and lethality are usually correlated, afaict.
- ignoramous 6y agoOr, imagine a HIV-esque virus. Super long incubation period, lethal in that it attacks your immune system, and super different than anything we've seen before to effectively find a cure or a vaccine faster than usual. Now imagine if such a virus was airborne and was already spreading... Who'd know?
- usrusr 6y ago> but I read that viruses with a high mortality rate are much easier to contain Only if all other parameters remain the same. There could be much worse viruses than SARS-Cov-2 (e.g. that are similar in eventual mortality but have symptoms lag behind start of shedding even more). A virus could be just as species-ending as a large rock hitting the earth, they are just both very unlikely or else we wouldn't be here.