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>There's really no wonder that virus that spreads through human population is slightly better adjusted to humans than animal species its ancestor was infecting.

by forcry 5y ago

>There's really no wonder that virus that spreads through human population is slightly better adjusted to humans than animal species its ancestor was infecting. This does not make sense to me, because I think the COVID virus was pretty stable for a long time (being an RNA virus and all that, I don't know). So the idea is that it was optimally adapted during the time of the jump to humans (of course it could have got the perfect mutation right at the time of the jump, but the chances of that happening is astronomically small), and the optimal human transmission was not acquired later when it started circulating in humans. So the only way to have this happened is if it was optimized in a GoF research in a lab.

scotty79 5y ago
Virus doesn't need to be perfectly adapted to infect a species. It easily infects species other than humans. It's stable but not that stable. The variant that spread out of China was already different than the variant that initially caused trouble in China. Since then we got few new variants and that's only counting the ones that spread enough for us to notice. There are no perfect things in biology. All things are just good enough. This virus was just good enough at spreading between people that given our connectivity it spread pandemically. If the virus was was somehow uniquely well adapted to humans (which it isn't) it would be still more probable that its ancestor was just an unknown human coronavirus (other than 4 that cause some common colds) that we haven't discovered yet, because it spread completely asympthomatically. And the mutation it acquired made it slightly lethal not more infectious. I don't think that happened because then why would pangolins be better suited for it than dogs, although dogs and cats being high on the list is quite curious. And I'd be careful about reasoning that if I can't imagine any other way something could happen then it must have happened exactly the way I think it happened. It's good to be aware that no matter who I am and what I know, my ignorance always exceeds my knowledge and imagination.
- forcry 5y ago
  >Virus doesn't need to be perfectly adapted to infect a species. To be frank, no one said so. >And I'd be careful about reasoning that if I can't imagine any other way something could happen then it must have happened exactly the way I think it happened No one is doing that either. Just that the chance of alternative is astronomically small..
  - scotty79 5y ago
    That's a weird way of saying "I believe it didn't happen like that."

by forcry 5y ago

scotty79 5y ago

Virus doesn't need to be perfectly adapted to infect a species. It easily infects species other than humans. It's stable but not that stable. The variant that spread out of China was already different than the variant that initially caused trouble in China. Since then we got few new variants and that's only counting the ones that spread enough for us to notice. There are no perfect things in biology. All things are just good enough. This virus was just good enough at spreading between people that given our connectivity it spread pandemically. If the virus was was somehow uniquely well adapted to humans (which it isn't) it would be still more probable that its ancestor was just an unknown human coronavirus (other than 4 that cause some common colds) that we haven't discovered yet, because it spread completely asympthomatically. And the mutation it acquired made it slightly lethal not more infectious. I don't think that happened because then why would pangolins be better suited for it than dogs, although dogs and cats being high on the list is quite curious. And I'd be careful about reasoning that if I can't imagine any other way something could happen then it must have happened exactly the way I think it happened. It's good to be aware that no matter who I am and what I know, my ignorance always exceeds my knowledge and imagination.

forcry 5y ago
>Virus doesn't need to be perfectly adapted to infect a species. To be frank, no one said so. >And I'd be careful about reasoning that if I can't imagine any other way something could happen then it must have happened exactly the way I think it happened No one is doing that either. Just that the chance of alternative is astronomically small..
- scotty79 5y ago
  That's a weird way of saying "I believe it didn't happen like that."