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A comment on Omicron variant more resistant to vaccine but causes less severe Covid: study. Parent comment

Re:Omicron variant more resistant to vaccine but causes less... by drexlspivey on Tuesday December 14, 2021 @03:44PM (#29557369)
It is most likely pretty close to the final strain, viral mutations are optimizing for high transmission and low severity (to not kill the host and maximize infections) and this one is pretty close to the global maximum.
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Re:Omicron variant more resistant to vaccine but causes less... by heavyset_go on Tuesday December 14, 2021 @04:34PM (#29558188)
> viral mutations are optimizing for high transmission and low severity (to not kill the host and maximize infections

The selection pressure that sometimes selects for weaker strains is large amounts of viral hosts dying, causing the stronger strains to literally die out in the corpses they create.

People aren't dying in droves because of COVID. There is little evolutionary pressure to select for weaker variants of the virus.

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Re:Omicron variant more resistant to vaccine but causes less... by engmgrmgr on Tuesday December 14, 2021 @03:55PM (#29557566)
Evolution isn’t programmed, it’s a function of survival. If there’s a highly infectious virus with a huge lead time to develop deadly symptoms, that’s more than enough to spread “optimally”
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Re:Omicron variant more resistant to vaccine but causes less... by sjg007 on Tuesday December 14, 2021 @03:54PM (#29557541)
Why do people parrot this nonsense?
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Omicron variant more resistant to vaccine but causes less... by engmgrmgr on Tuesday December 14, 2021 @03:59PM (#29557623)
people are easily influenced by others who they admire, even if they have no idea what they’re talking about. athletes, politicians, investors, artists, etc.
[ Parent | on HN ]