Asymptomatic spread removes evolutionary pressure for COVID-19 to become less lethal
Balaji Srinivasan · #78 Balaji Srinivasan: Exploring COVID-19 · Mar 13, 2020 · at 21:00
Balaji Srinivasan breaks down viral mutation and evolutionary dynamics during the early onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020.
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“Now, sometimes, often, viruses evolve to be less lethal and more contagious because, you know, like, if you, if it's like Ebola and somebody dies in a pool of blood, then, you know, they don't spread it very far, right? The Ebola virus actually sort of, it kills people before they can spread it, right? But, ah, for this one, it's not obvious that it evolves to become less lethal, because it's actually already super contagious, and it's asymptomatic for a long period of time, so once you spread it doesn't care about you that much, and might kill you, or mess you up pretty bad.”
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