Quote:
Originally Posted by kendi
It gets less awful as it mutates. As most viruses do.
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As with so many misleading comments, this is sort of true.
MOST mutations do not survive. PERIOD. The next level of mutations are mostly not significant changes, so appear to be the same virus.
The last group of mutations is worse. While they may be the least frequent, they are more aggressive (DELTA is more contagious). If you win the lottery a mutation is more contagious and more dealy, then bad stuff happens worldwide.
The odds of a really bad mutation/variant occurring are slim, but not zero - hence we have DELTA in the first year of this pandemic. The reason we want everyone possible to get a vaccination and to wear masks is to reduce the population of virus spreaders - more people with the virus, more people spreading means more bad mutations are able to find a host to grow and spread from.
If a mutation occurs in the forest and no one is there, it dies. If a mutation occurs at a political rally and 100,000 people are there it has a good chance of finding a moist warm new friendly host to raise its family of millions of clones to share with family, friends, and neighbors - even strangers at the grocery store.