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Can someone explain? It basically self selects for survivability because living people spread better? And if so, how does the old strand die out in our world?
by anotheryou 6y ago
Can someone explain? It basically self selects for survivability because living people spread better?
And if so, how does the old strand die out in our world?
- rusk 6y agoIf it’s too severe the hosts take mitigation strategies which reduce the spread
- rich_sasha 6y agoI think roughly this, but it is a bit more complex. Basically, mutations of the virus that cause it to spread more make it more likely for the strain to persist. Usually this means, virus becomes more benign, doesn’t kill people quickly and instead causes some minor illness, which gives the patient more opportunities to spread it. But it’s not a given. It could for example mutate to become more deadly, but with a longer infectious period. This is what happened to myxomatosis in rabbits in Australia.