27
Endemic COVID-19 (en.wikipedia.org)
submitted 3 months ago by to c/wikipedia@lemmy.world
10 comments fedilink hide all child comments
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] 6 points 3 months ago (2 children)

In a longer term sense. If all the viable hosts die day one the virus stops having anyplace to go.

The plague also largely died out after killing a massive portion of the population, if they hadn't been killed it could have gone on for far longer.

Killing the host isn't beneficial for the parasite using it for resources. Not that there's an active effort to be choose the traits, but something that happens to evolve to be less lethal and more easily transmitted will tend to exist longer.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
    •
  • [–] -1 points 3 months ago (1 child)

    The plague was one of the most fatal pandemics ever. "It's alright, if it's too deadly it can't spread much" is nonsense. THAT'S what people are saying.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 1 child comment
    •
  • [–] 3 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

    At what point did I say anything about it being too deadly that it can't spread? It's entirely feasible that something could be very deadly and very contagious at the same time.

    However, with that combination unless the host reproduces at a crazy high rate the virus won't last long because it'll run out of hosts to infect quickly.

    In epidemiology, an infection is said to be endemic in a specific population or populated place when that infection is constantly present, or maintained at a baseline level.

    For an infection to persist for a long time it needs to have somewhere to live, if everyone dies it can't become an endemic condition.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent