3 ms·

Could be. We've been waiting/hoping for something endemic but mild. But there's no particular reason COVID would need to get any more mild than Delta.

Teever 5y ago
> But there's no particular reason COVID would need to get any more mild than Delta. Can you elaborate?
- Mikeb85 5y ago
  Which variants survive in the wild is natural selection. Too deadly and it kills the host before spreading. The viruses that spread the most are the ones least noticed. Example: common cold viruses. They're essentially always there and only make you sick when your immune system weakens a bit, and goes away quickly as well.
  - dham 5y ago
    Speak for yourself, my son has brought home some gnarly stuff over the past few years lol. About 3 years ago I was sick for like a month and felt not great for 2 months haha.
    - Mikeb85 5y ago
      Could have been a flu in that case. Colds are usually pretty benign though.
- newsbinator 5y ago
  Viruses evolve to become more mild because very sick or dead hosts are bad spreaders. Covid has a long incubation period before symptom onset (when somebody notices and isolates or becomes bed-bound). So Covid, especially Delta, spreads well for days, whether or not ultimately symptoms are mild or ultimately it causes death. Therefore a mild version of Delta wouldn't necessarily outcompete a non-mild version of Delta, all other things being equal.
  - CogitoCogito 5y ago
    > Viruses evolve to become more mild because very sick or dead hosts are bad spreaders. This need not be true. There are many ways a virus could spread more while simultaneously making people sicker and causing more death. For example, a strain evolving to cause people to be contagious and spread for twice as long as now and then killing everyone could very well spread more than it does now.
- anothernewdude 5y ago
  Diseases don't really need to become mild if they can spread sufficiently fast and aren't killing their host before they can so.
nradov 5y ago
SARS-CoV-2 is already endemic, and causes mild common cold symptoms for the vast majority of youths. This is exactly the same as the other four endemic human coronaviruses. Most of us get infected with those when we're young and the resulting immunity protects us when we're older.

Teever 5y ago

> But there's no particular reason COVID would need to get any more mild than Delta. Can you elaborate?

Mikeb85 5y ago
Which variants survive in the wild is natural selection. Too deadly and it kills the host before spreading. The viruses that spread the most are the ones least noticed. Example: common cold viruses. They're essentially always there and only make you sick when your immune system weakens a bit, and goes away quickly as well.
- dham 5y ago
  Speak for yourself, my son has brought home some gnarly stuff over the past few years lol. About 3 years ago I was sick for like a month and felt not great for 2 months haha.
  - Mikeb85 5y ago
    Could have been a flu in that case. Colds are usually pretty benign though.
newsbinator 5y ago
Viruses evolve to become more mild because very sick or dead hosts are bad spreaders. Covid has a long incubation period before symptom onset (when somebody notices and isolates or becomes bed-bound). So Covid, especially Delta, spreads well for days, whether or not ultimately symptoms are mild or ultimately it causes death. Therefore a mild version of Delta wouldn't necessarily outcompete a non-mild version of Delta, all other things being equal.
- CogitoCogito 5y ago
  > Viruses evolve to become more mild because very sick or dead hosts are bad spreaders. This need not be true. There are many ways a virus could spread more while simultaneously making people sicker and causing more death. For example, a strain evolving to cause people to be contagious and spread for twice as long as now and then killing everyone could very well spread more than it does now.
anothernewdude 5y ago
Diseases don't really need to become mild if they can spread sufficiently fast and aren't killing their host before they can so.

nradov 5y ago

SARS-CoV-2 is already endemic, and causes mild common cold symptoms for the vast majority of youths. This is exactly the same as the other four endemic human coronaviruses. Most of us get infected with those when we're young and the resulting immunity protects us when we're older.