Re:Omicron variant more resistant to vaccine but causes less...
by hackinthebochs on Tuesday December 14, 2021 @01:35PM
(#29555368)
> So there is little evolutionary pressure on the virus to be less deadly - by the time it kills people, we are spent vessels from its point of view.
A variant that infects more people from a single host (assuming everything else held constant) is a positive selective pressure. So increasing the contagious period is beneficial. But the length of the contagious period is inversely related to the timing and strength of the immune response. So we should expect the virus to become less deadly over time, assuming there's a hard limit to its ability to evade a typical immune system.
A variant that infects more people from a single host (assuming everything else held constant) is a positive selective pressure. So increasing the contagious period is beneficial. But the length of the contagious period is inversely related to the timing and strength of the immune response. So we should expect the virus to become less deadly over time, assuming there's a hard limit to its ability to evade a typical immune system.