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Who told you that? There is no selection pressure for Covid to become less lethal. None whatever. Furthermore, no human virus has ever evolved to become less

Who told you that? There is no selection pressure for Covid to become less lethal. None whatever. Furthermore, no human virus has ever evolved to become less lethal. Unfortunately this myth is often used by those who would like us to let Covid keep on killing, in order to protect their cashflows and for ideological and political reasons.

mherrmann 5y ago
> There is no selection pressure for Covid to become less lethal. Isn't there though? Say Covid killed within seconds. Then it couldn't spread. The longer the host lives, the more other people it can infect. I would almost say that the opposite of what you wrote is true.
- forgotmyoldname 5y ago
  Length of time until death doesn’t mean a virus is less lethal. Rabies effectively has a 100% death rate and it can take years for it to kick in. There are cases of people suddenly showing symptoms 5 years after initial exposure, and once that happens, your brain basically rapidly rots and you drop dead. We have no clue what the long term effects of any covid variants are. We can only speculate.
- tigershark 5y ago
  It’s exactly the opposite of what you are saying. There is pressure for the virus to NOT become more lethal in less time. It’s the opposite of saying that there is pressure for the virus to become less lethal in more time.
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
fach 5y ago
Did the Spanish flu not evolve into our less lethal, seasonal flu?
- catlikesshrimp 5y ago
  I don't think so. I also don't know why the black plague (Yersinia Pestis) ended. Wikipedia theories are as reliable as usual. (Not reliable)
  - noduerme 5y ago
    Yersinia Pestis is a bacterium, not a virus, and it can be killed by antibiotics. It's not gone. It's still around in fleas that live on squirrels and rats. In the mountains near where I live, the squirrels have it, and people get it every couple years. But that may or may not be what caused the black death in medieval Europe, in my view. There's reason to think it might have been a really nasty hemorhagic virus like Ebola. See: https://history.howstuffworks.com/historical-events/black-death5.htm https://history.howstuffworks.com/historical-events/black-de...
    - catlikesshrimp 5y ago
      Antibiotics hadn't been discovered when the black plague ended. The bubonic plague that can described today is not the black plague. There had been several pandemics of black plague, but at some point it didn't come back. Why? Maybe there was a bacteriophague virus which caused Yersinia Pestis to be lethal? (Hypothesis) But why would it be gone? https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27281573/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27281573/
- paul_f 5y ago
  Yes, this is correct. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/will-coronavirus-evolve-be-less-deadly-180976288/ https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/will-coronavir...
noduerme 5y ago
This is incorrect - there is obvious selection pressure for lower lethality. But it's also absurd and inappropriately politicizing a scientific question to assert that only "those" with a malevolent agenda believe that the virus will ultimately become less dangerous. It's believed that each one of the other coronaviruses which are now endemic "common colds" began as a more lethal pandemic, the last probably being in 1890. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/may/31/did-a-coronavirus-cause-the-pandemic-that-killed-queen-victorias-heir https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/may/31/did-a-coronavi...
- sjg007 5y ago
  These other coronas are different, mostly upper respiratory and don't target ACE2 deep in the lungs or other organs.
  - noduerme 5y ago
    ACE2 receptors are all over the respiratory tract and the lining of blood vessels[1] Yes, Covid is primarily dangerous when it manages to get deep in the lungs and cause pneumonia. It takes a week or two of being sick before it gets there. That's why you heard early in the pandemic how people were fine, until about day 7 or day 10 and then suddenly went to the hospital. Other coronaviruses can do the same thing. If you ever get a cold for 10 days, your immune system is probably pretty bad and you very well might get pneumonia. But you don't usually get pneumonia from the cold coronaviruses, because your body knows how to fight them off. When the 1890 coronavirus hit, no one had immunity and it was pretty deadly. But we have good immunity to that virus now (so we call it a common cold). As long as you can ramp up an immune response and kill it off before it gets a foothold deep in your lungs. [1] https://www.asbmb.org/asbmb-today/science/051620/what-is-the-ace2-receptor https://www.asbmb.org/asbmb-today/science/051620/what-is-the...

mherrmann 5y ago

> There is no selection pressure for Covid to become less lethal. Isn't there though? Say Covid killed within seconds. Then it couldn't spread. The longer the host lives, the more other people it can infect. I would almost say that the opposite of what you wrote is true.

forgotmyoldname 5y ago
Length of time until death doesn’t mean a virus is less lethal. Rabies effectively has a 100% death rate and it can take years for it to kick in. There are cases of people suddenly showing symptoms 5 years after initial exposure, and once that happens, your brain basically rapidly rots and you drop dead. We have no clue what the long term effects of any covid variants are. We can only speculate.
tigershark 5y ago
It’s exactly the opposite of what you are saying. There is pressure for the virus to NOT become more lethal in less time. It’s the opposite of saying that there is pressure for the virus to become less lethal in more time.

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

fach 5y ago

Did the Spanish flu not evolve into our less lethal, seasonal flu?

catlikesshrimp 5y ago
I don't think so. I also don't know why the black plague (Yersinia Pestis) ended. Wikipedia theories are as reliable as usual. (Not reliable)
- noduerme 5y ago
  Yersinia Pestis is a bacterium, not a virus, and it can be killed by antibiotics. It's not gone. It's still around in fleas that live on squirrels and rats. In the mountains near where I live, the squirrels have it, and people get it every couple years. But that may or may not be what caused the black death in medieval Europe, in my view. There's reason to think it might have been a really nasty hemorhagic virus like Ebola. See: https://history.howstuffworks.com/historical-events/black-death5.htm https://history.howstuffworks.com/historical-events/black-de...
  - catlikesshrimp 5y ago
    Antibiotics hadn't been discovered when the black plague ended. The bubonic plague that can described today is not the black plague. There had been several pandemics of black plague, but at some point it didn't come back. Why? Maybe there was a bacteriophague virus which caused Yersinia Pestis to be lethal? (Hypothesis) But why would it be gone? https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27281573/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27281573/
paul_f 5y ago
Yes, this is correct. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/will-coronavirus-evolve-be-less-deadly-180976288/ https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/will-coronavir...

noduerme 5y ago

This is incorrect - there is obvious selection pressure for lower lethality. But it's also absurd and inappropriately politicizing a scientific question to assert that only "those" with a malevolent agenda believe that the virus will ultimately become less dangerous. It's believed that each one of the other coronaviruses which are now endemic "common colds" began as a more lethal pandemic, the last probably being in 1890. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/may/31/did-a-coronavirus-cause-the-pandemic-that-killed-queen-victorias-heir https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/may/31/did-a-coronavi...

sjg007 5y ago
These other coronas are different, mostly upper respiratory and don't target ACE2 deep in the lungs or other organs.
- noduerme 5y ago
  ACE2 receptors are all over the respiratory tract and the lining of blood vessels[1] Yes, Covid is primarily dangerous when it manages to get deep in the lungs and cause pneumonia. It takes a week or two of being sick before it gets there. That's why you heard early in the pandemic how people were fine, until about day 7 or day 10 and then suddenly went to the hospital. Other coronaviruses can do the same thing. If you ever get a cold for 10 days, your immune system is probably pretty bad and you very well might get pneumonia. But you don't usually get pneumonia from the cold coronaviruses, because your body knows how to fight them off. When the 1890 coronavirus hit, no one had immunity and it was pretty deadly. But we have good immunity to that virus now (so we call it a common cold). As long as you can ramp up an immune response and kill it off before it gets a foothold deep in your lungs. [1] https://www.asbmb.org/asbmb-today/science/051620/what-is-the-ace2-receptor https://www.asbmb.org/asbmb-today/science/051620/what-is-the...