4 ms·

It would be nice to know if the Brazil variant is more dangerous or not. The ideal case is a variant that gets more easily transmissible but less harmful - ever

by u678u 6y ago

It would be nice to know if the Brazil variant is more dangerous or not. The ideal case is a variant that gets more easily transmissible but less harmful - everyone could pass it on and become immune to the other strains.

ISL 6y ago
The key point of this article is that the new variant is sufficiently unlike the original strain that it may be able to infect those who have already had the original strain. If that is true, 2021 will be another memorable year.
- timr 6y ago
  > may be able to infect those who have already had the original strain. ...the "may" in your response re-affirms the OP's question. We don't know yet. This is speculation.
- u678u 6y ago
  > If that is true, 2021 will be another memorable year. Eish, Dont say it!
guscost 6y ago
That is not just the ideal case, it is the case supported by both historical precedent and theory: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4873896 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4873896 > By far, the most widely studied trade-off involves transmission and virulence (Anderson and May, 1982; Frank, 1996; Alizon et al. 2009).
- masonic 6y ago
  That paper is about parasites, not viruses.
  - guscost 6y ago
    Academically, a virus is a kind of parasite, one that cannot reproduce (or really do anything at all) independent of its host. All “parasite” means is that the organism depends on a host, but yes outside the academy it is often used in place of “multicellular parasite”.