omicron inoculation

Peter Fairbrother peter at tsto.co.uk
Wed Dec 1 16:23:36 PST 2021


On 01/12/2021 20:47, coderman wrote:
[...]
> if one were to design a milder COVID, intended to function
> as an inoculation against severe strains of COVID, it
> would look an awful lot like Omicron! ... :P
> 
> perhaps humans just got lucky, 

Viruses, like most diseases, tend to mutate to less-lethal variants over 
time - cf the "Spanish" 'flu of 1918-19, a mutated form of which is 
still with us now as the A(H1N1) 'flu virus.

However this is a statistical trend with many ups and downs (else lethal 
diseases would not exist in the first place), and a lot of individuals, 
sometimes an entire population or species, can die before it happens.

If omicron is as advertised, more transmissible and less lethal, then 
indeed we may have gotten lucky. But I'm not counting any chickens just 
yet ...


Peter Fairbrother


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