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PopularStaff7146 t1_jdjaz48 wrote

Variants kind of fade out. From an evolutionary perspective, a virus’s entire purpose is to live and replicate within it’s hosts. That’s why we’ve generally observed later variants of some viruses to be less fatal. It doesn’t do a virus much good to kill its host.

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Booty_Bumping t1_jdjpvzt wrote

> That’s why we’ve generally observed later variants of some viruses to be less fatal. It doesn’t do a virus much good to kill its host.

While this is somewhat true, there are important limitations to this model. If a virus has already done enough spreading, from an evolutionary perspective it doesn't matter much if the patient dies later. Another factor, observed in Delta variant, is that having a respiratory virus that is more contagious might also mean it is more deadly, because it is disrupting more cells to produce more viruses.

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melanthius t1_jdjfjti wrote

Wouldn’t a virus do just fine if it re-infects a few people on average before the host dies?

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barchueetadonai t1_jdjg7dd wrote

Yes, but it’s very difficult to be infected with two very similar virus stains at the same time, so a more infectious variant (like Omicron) would get to most hosts first, so the other strains would keep hitting hosts that are already infected with the more infectious strain.

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valryuu t1_jdjie0x wrote

So does the more infectious strain just basically outcompete the less infectious ones, and prevent the latter from even actually infecting the person?

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