3 ms·
It’s largely a myth that viruses follow this evolutionary path and no such pressure really exists for COVID. It doesn’t kill enough of the population for this t
by bugglebeetle 3y ago
It’s largely a myth that viruses follow this evolutionary path and no such pressure really exists for COVID. It doesn’t kill enough of the population for this to exist and even when it does kill people, it can spread for weeks or months before they die.
https://www.mcgill.ca/oss/article/covid-19/do-bad-viruses-always-become-good-guys-end https://www.mcgill.ca/oss/article/covid-19/do-bad-viruses-al...
- Majromax 3y agoThere is some pressure in this direction for respiratory illnesses. It's easiest to spread an illness when it's present in the upper airways (and thus easiest to cough/sneeze out), but the illness does more damage to the lungs when it's deep in the tissues. If it were an exclusive choice, evolutionary pressure would tend to push the former, more transmissible route. The literature at least tentatively reports that Covid variants tend to make this shift (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10024278/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10024278/), which partially explains why the variants were more transmissible than Covid!Classic.
- stuaxo 3y agoIndeed, it seems like wishful thinking.