Has the world just gone mad?
Is Britain heading for a Coronavirus Lockdown?
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/index.html
Really. This is not 28 Days Later, surely.
I am told it is not in a virus's best interests to wipe us all out, or even kill at all. Are we not just contemporaries in the Darwinian Game? And would XR Crusties not be expending all efforts to promote its spread as much as possible to achieve their aims?
Lots to discuss ...
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Viruses
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- Lemon Quarter
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Re: Viruses
moorfield wrote:Has the world just gone mad?
I am told it is not in a virus's best interests to wipe us all out, or even kill at all.
Yeah. But some of them do, don't they?
moorfield wrote:Lots to discuss ...
OK. Over to you.
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- Lemon Quarter
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Re: Viruses
XFool wrote:Yeah. But some of them do, don't they?
Obviously not because we are still here to post on this forum.
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Re: Viruses
johnhemming wrote:XFool wrote:Yeah. But some of them do, don't they?
Obviously not because we are still here to post on this forum.
So nobody has ever died from a virus? This is news to many!
moorfield wrote:Has the world just gone mad?
I am told it is not in a virus's best interests to wipe us all out, or even kill at all.
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Re: Viruses
XFool wrote:johnhemming wrote:XFool wrote:Yeah. But some of them do, don't they?
Obviously not because we are still here to post on this forum.
So nobody has ever died from a virus? This is news to many!
There are viruses that kill, certainly, but not always directly. Instead, they commit the perfect crime by encouraging the body to kill itself - perhaps by cultivating harmful bacteria, or perhaps by building up resistances that will eventually overwhelm the internal organs.
About eight years ago, I got a dose of flu which set up a bacteria factory in my windpipe, and I soon found myself in a pneumonia ward with bits of my lungs melting away. (I'm lucky like that. ) The guy in the next bed to me was a 25 year old rugby player, as fit as a flea, but like me, he'd simply chosen the wrong virus to catch. It was the same thing with the 1918 Spanish flu epidemic, which hardly killed anybody - instead, it was the pneumonia and the kidney failures and the sepsis that carried them all off. Their death certificates may have said "complications from influenza", but in many cases they probably didn't.
A really effective virus gets round the pesky mortality problem by having a long incubation period, so that the maximum spread can be achieved before the host pops his clogs. In the case of the coronavirus, it also affects some people so marginally that they don't even notice that they're ill. That's where my slight tickly cough can turn into somebody else's death sentence. And that's a really devious virus.
BJ
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Re: Viruses
moorfield wrote:I am told it is not in a virus's best interests to wipe us all out, or even kill at all. Are we not just contemporaries in the Darwinian Game?
Evolution is not directed.
Viruses that killed all their hosts do not exist, because they killed all their hosts and then died from a lack of hosts. But viruses that will kill all their hosts have not yet been selected against.
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Re: Viruses
9873210 wrote:moorfield wrote:I am told it is not in a virus's best interests to wipe us all out, or even kill at all. Are we not just contemporaries in the Darwinian Game?
Evolution is not directed.
Viruses that killed all their hosts do not exist, because they killed all their hosts and then died from a lack of hosts. But viruses that will kill all their hosts have not yet been selected against.
Not strictly true - Viruses that kill ther hosts before they are tranmitted elsewhere do not exist.
Ebola and HIV were pretty good at killing all their hosts without serious medical intervention.
Paul
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Re: Viruses
DrFfybes wrote:9873210 wrote:moorfield wrote:I am told it is not in a virus's best interests to wipe us all out, or even kill at all. Are we not just contemporaries in the Darwinian Game?
Evolution is not directed.
Viruses that killed all their hosts do not exist, because they killed all their hosts and then died from a lack of hosts. But viruses that will kill all their hosts have not yet been selected against.
Not strictly true - Viruses that kill ther hosts before they are tranmitted elsewhere do not exist.
Ebola and HIV were pretty good at killing all their hosts without serious medical intervention.
Paul
A virus that is well-adapted to its host may well not kill its host at all. The real danger for us is with viruses that are not co-adapted with us, i.e. we are not the normal host; where viruses jump to our species from another species they can be particularly lethal because we/they have not had time to co-adapt e.g. Marberg, Ebola, HIV, MERS, SARS, H1N1. It seems likely that Marberg, Ebola and the Corona viruses MERS, SARS, and COVID-19 may have originated in bats, possibly passing through another mammal host en-route to humans (e.g camels - MERS; pangolin or palm civet COVID-19(?)). Because humans do not generally interact much with bats we don't have experience/exposure with their viruses and hence have no resistance. As the viruses normal host is not human it is not adapted to avoid killing us - so it doesn't really 'mind' whether it kills us or not.
BP
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