We are seeing the inevitable virus mutations that allow it to survive and thrive. Evolution is based on the survivors and reproducers, so the longer a variant survives and the more it reproduces the sooner it becomes the most prevalent.
The early versions were quite serious and in the absence of competition spread rapidly. Hospitalization rate and death rate were fairly high. Over time we have passed through a series of variants but only a few became prominent. Delta was the first one that became prevalent.
There is evidence that Delta was not as deadly as the original although it had similar potential. When a variant can exist in a seemingly healthy individual it can spread rapidly since that person doesn't even realize they are infected.
As more people got vaccinated, although not enough, a variant, Omicron, appeared which had adopted more ways to infect people. It is spreading but most indications are that it is much milder than previous variants.
Not that it can't be deadly, people do die from the flu, but it appears that it will more closely resemble that sort of lethality.
This is of course the predictable outcome since a virus does not have evil intent. It manly wants to replicate itself as much as possible. When it kills a host quickly replication ends.
I imagine it will evolve into a flu like illness that develops new variants each year.
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