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A comment on Ancient DNA traces origin of Black Death. Parent comment

Re:Ancient DNA traces origin of Black Death by Ajef on Thursday June 16, 2022 @11:17AM (#31767060)
> If you were an infection that wanted to survive and spread as far as possible, you wouldn't want to kill your host at all.

You may be oversimplifying here... consider that the host has an immune system and the infection has a limited time to either live in the host or to kill the host and remain in an infectious corpse for a while longer afterward.

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Re:Ancient DNA traces origin of Black Death by throwaway290 on Friday June 17, 2022 @04:32AM (#31775552)
I mean, somehow toxoplasma seems to not be caught by the immune system, so presumably they can evolve this way. If you don't directly harm the host, and maybe even benefit it, its immune system would have bigger fish to fry than going after you, no?

As to corpses, fair enough. Ah, if only these infections caught up that humans don't often just leave bodies around...

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