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Ramez Naam
@ramez
This thread is worth reading for any of us who have believed that viruses had an overall trend to evolve to be less lethal.
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Adrian Constantin #⃣🎵
@adriancjr
This 🧵is a layman's understanding regarding virus pathogenicity and evolution: science only says that viruses which kill all their hosts will disappear. That's all. From this, it doesn't follow that viruses have an "inner desire" not to kill their hosts or to become milder.
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Ramez Naam
@ramez
Replying to
@Aella_Girl
I don't think it directly contradicts that. But the example of smallpox, for example, and how it stayed extremely lethal for millennia, shows that it's far from guaranteed to happen.
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Ramez Naam
@ramez
Replying to
@Aella_Girl
Fair enough. I'd be really interested to see a systematic comparison of human viral diseases we know of, and what percentage have become less lethal, at what pace.
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