WHO declares coronavirus outbreak a public health emergency

Re:WHO declares coronavirus outbreak a public health emergency by treis on Thursday January 30, 2020 @03:56PM (#22195482)

Viruses tend to become less deadly as they spread because dead people don't spread disease. Typically it mutates slightly into a less deadly strain. Then that strain spreads more quickly and gives the population some level of immunity against the more deadly one.

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Re:WHO declares coronavirus outbreak a public health emergency by munificent on Thursday January 30, 2020 @04:09PM (#22195615)

> Viruses tend to become less deadly as they spread because dead people don't spread disease.

This is why the longer incubation time of this coronavirus is such a concern. It gives a potentially fatal disease more time to spread before it self limits. Also, I've heard reports that some infected are asymptomatic, so it may continue to spread even while taking out some people.

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Re:WHO declares coronavirus outbreak a public health emergency by csomar on Thursday January 30, 2020 @05:24PM (#22196499)

Not if this Coronavirus is asymptomatic for two weeks. These are still China claims and the west is still suspicious. But if this is true then holy cows.

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Re:WHO declares coronavirus outbreak a public health emergency by dpark on Thursday January 30, 2020 @04:11PM (#22195636)

This sounds like extremely wishful thinking. Is there some support for this claim?

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Re:WHO declares coronavirus outbreak a public health emergency by lgl on Thursday January 30, 2020 @06:37PM (#22197222)

Yes, it's called evolution. But since this is hn, here're a few articles/papers on the subject.

https://evolution.berkeley.edu/evolibrary/news/071201_adenov...

https://www.pnas.org/content/pnas/early/2014/11/26/141333911...

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2639916/pdf/896...

http://hedrick.ucsd.edu/BICD136/PDF-links/Galvani-Epid-evol....

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Re:WHO declares coronavirus outbreak a public health emergency by dpark on Thursday January 30, 2020 @10:37PM (#22198799)

I was asking specifically about this claim: “Viruses tend to become less deadly as they spread“

I understand the basics of evolution. I also don’t have any trouble understanding the trades between transmission and virulence. However, this is not the same as saying that the typical virus becomes less virulent over the short term during a major outbreak.

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