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joshuas193 t1_jdivqzo wrote

Reply to comment by porkypuha in What happened to the old COVID variants, like Delta? Could they come back? by number1dork

As far as I'm aware the current virus is more contagious but less severe.

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Tephnos t1_jdk75gb wrote

Yes, and no.

It is less severe because everyone has some kind of immunity to it. The virus inherently is probably still as virulent as the original type to someone with zero immunity.

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azahel452 t1_jdjsqtu wrote

That's how it usually goes with virus, it's their version of natural selection. If they're too strong, they kill the host and that's not good for the perpetuation of the species, so those variations die out. The weaker but more contagious versions are the ones that have more success in reproducing. It's quite fascinating to think about.

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Tephnos t1_jdk72mf wrote

Wrong.

It doesn't matter if the host dies or not, all that matters is that it can spread before the host dies. COVID was perfectly capable of doing this via asymptomatic spread. (see: Delta).

Omicron outcompeted Delta because it had mutated so wildly that it could bypass all the antibodies the vaccines had generated up to that point, plus it drastically reduced the incubation time, meaning more spread potential. That's it. It could've been as lethal as Delta and would've still been successful.

Omicron is likely as severe as the original strain, the difference is now everyone has some kind of immunity to it, so it wasn't killing people nearly as much on a per-person basis.

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