3 ms·

There's no guarantee that it will work that way: smallpox didn't get less deadly. Only vaccination wiped it out. If the patient is contagious before developing

• throw868788 5y ago
  > If the patient is contagious before developing symptoms, the virus can spread very effectively even if many patients die. For better or worse all that means is that viruses may evolve to delay their symptoms rather than overall peak severity if that's possible. It means still just as delay but with a good enough delay to spread. I don't really see the selective pressure however for this virus to become more benign. It seems to have enough people to infect without it given how contagious it is. It doesn't really have to become more benign to allow even more spread.
  • XorNot 5y ago
    The problem with becoming benign is the competition between needing to be breathed out onto people before the immune system destroys it, and respiratory diseases have never not been nasty.
• gpapilion 5y ago
  Arguably covid is already less deadly, the majority of deaths are concentrated in older populations. Generally the disease isn't as impactful to those under 50, meaning its not interfering with your ability to have children or raise children. Age and Date Data: [https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/vsrr/covid_weekly/index.htm#SexAndAge https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/vsrr/covid_weekly/index.htm#Se...]
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• stjohnswarts 5y ago
  Smallpox also isn't nearly as prone to mutation as covid either.