Poll of the Day > I'm sick of people saying COVID could mutate into something worse.

(+) Yeah! (+)

That's literally not how viruses work or function at all.

Viruses mutate into something LESS deadly 99% of the time. More contagious, but less lethal. COVID isn't going to mutate into something worse than it already is and if anything we should welcome mutations since they'll be safer.

THEGODDAMNBATMA posted...

That's literally not how viruses work or function at all.

Except they kinda can. It's less common, mind you, but not outside the realm of possibility. And when you have something this widespread, you're more likely to get a weird mutation.

THEGODDAMNBATMA posted...

Viruses mutate into something LESS deadly 99% of the time.

...so even you admit that they can. Maybe you should point it out to that guy who said "I'm sick of people saying COVID could mutate into something worse." >_>

THEGODDAMNBATMA posted...

More contagious, but less lethal. COVID isn't going to mutate into something worse than it already is and if anything we should welcome mutations since they'll be safer.

Supposedly a few of the variants have a higher lethality, but I haven't scrutinized that claim just yet.

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Dude how do you think covid-19 even came into existence

it evolved from other existing coronaviruses

stop trolling potd with these topics.

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It is counter productive for viruses' survival if they became deadlier though.
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LeetCheet posted...

It is counter productive for viruses' survival if they became deadlier though.

Mutation is random, not planned.

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Both the new one in Africa and the new one in NYC are both more dangerous and more congagous. They might be the exact kind of "more deadly" that we need to exist to talk folks into taking precautions that will cause it to die out.

What we've got now is the perfect virus in a game of pandemic. Just low enough in threat that we world isn't trying to stomp it out, one mutation away from global destruction and victory.

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lmao idk what school tc went to but i would be asking for my money back

the virus can mutate into something worse

literally thats what viruses do you big doofus

if by your own admission they mutate into something less virulent 99% of the time, what do u think happens the other 1% lmao

some fucking people, i know dumb people say dumb shit but please stop

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THEGODDAMNBATMA posted...

That's literally not how viruses work or function at all.

Viruses mutate into something LESS deadly 99% of the time. More contagious, but less lethal. COVID isn't going to mutate into something worse than it already is and if anything we should welcome mutations since they'll be safer.

Arv thinks welcoming is how this pandemic started

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Are you a doctor?

ignorance is astounding

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But it did. The brit versions can now kill kiddies too.
Inb5 banned for fearmongering by CCP.

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Mead posted...

Mutation is random, not planned.

This. Viruses (along with every other organism, putting aside for now the question of whether or not viruses qualify for that label) have no inherent drive to mutate to become less deadly, or anything like that. They just mutate randomly and pass those mutations on to their descendants.

What does happen is that mutating to become less deadly tends to be selectively favourable. The longer a virus goes without killing its host, the more opportunity it has to spread to other hosts, meaning that virus' genes are going to become more prevalent in the broader viral population than those of viruses that kill their hosts faster. Viruses aren't inherently more likely to mutate to be less deadly, but the less-deadly mutants that randomly arise will generally see greater reproductive success and ultimately become the dominant strain within a population.

That said, Covid was already in a position where it wasn't lethal enough to impede its spread. It's got a very low mortality rate (as detractors of public health measures are so eager to point out), coupled with symptoms that are often minor and easily confused for other illnesses, plus a substantial asymptomatic transmission period. It's already incredibly good at spreading, and even increasing the mortality rate by an order of magnitude isn't going to hurt that appreciably, and that means there isn't much by way of selective pressure to prevent it from becoming more deadly.

Lethality is also not the only way it can become more dangerous. From day one, this thing's been dangerous not because of a high mortality rate, but because of how easily it spreads (by comparison, Ebola's mortality rate is ~200 times higher, but the entire 2014-2016 Ebola outbreak killed fewer people worldwide than Covid did yesterday alone). There's plenty of selective pressure for it to become even more transmissible (since transmitting more easily increases reproductive success), which in turn makes it more dangerous. We've already seen this with many of the variants that are emerging, which is why their emergence has been taken so seriously by officials.

TL;DR: Covid can and has mutated into something worse. Suggesting that it can't or won't is a gross misunderstanding of not only obvious empirical reality, but also how evolution works and what people who know what they're talking about mean when they say that viruses tend to mutate to become less deadly.

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Can you stop dude? You're legitimately scientifically illiterate if you think that's not how viruses work I'm sorry

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Yellow posted...

You're legitimately scientifically illiterate if you think that's not how viruses work I'm sorry

It isn't wrong to say that viruses tend to mutate to be less deadly, but parroting that statement without understand the evolutionary theory behind it, how applicable it is to the current situation, or how the danger of a virus can increase without increasing how deadly it is is definitely going to result in some erroneous conclusions.

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Its the same odds for it to mutate into something deadly, but its less likely to spread because it kills the host before it can spread and get a foot hold

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Ogurisama posted...

Its the same odds for it to mutate into something deadly, but its less likely to spread because it kills the host before it can spread and get a foot hold

Reminds me of that game. Where you have to keep your disease less deadly until it spreads far enough, then make it deadly to kill the rest of the world...
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