Holy crap. I just followed the link, and if any of that stuff is true, I cannot even imagine the implications....
I'll have to check out the website and some sources, and see what's up.
Just a side-note, superviruses aren't created on purpose--they evolve because people don't stay home when sick, so it "pays" for the virus to develop stronger virulence . Even if it kills it's host, it will still get passed along to many more people.
The best thing to do when sick is to STAY HOME. If everyone stays home, the virus is forced to evolve to become less harmful--after all, if it kills you and you're alone, it has no vector to reproduce--it just killed off it's only way of reproducing. In this way, viruses that kill people are actually "less fit" and will have fewer "offspring", therefore decreasing in number. The less harmful versions of the virus will keep people from being bedridden or even knowing they're sick, and will spread throughout the population. A good example of this is HPV.
Quarantine is mostly for immediate management of an epidemic, but yes, it can also be used to "force" a disease to evolve to become less deadly.
I believe this is the method primarily used to control malaria and sleeping sickness (or was it yellow fever? ..it's been years since I took immunology in college) in Africa.
Comments 4
I'll have to check out the website and some sources, and see what's up.
Just a side-note, superviruses aren't created on purpose--they evolve because people don't stay home when sick, so it "pays" for the virus to develop stronger
virulence . Even if it kills it's host, it will still get passed along to many more people.
The best thing to do when sick is to STAY HOME. If everyone stays home, the virus is forced to evolve to become less harmful--after all, if it kills you and you're alone, it has no vector to reproduce--it just killed off it's only way of reproducing. In this way, viruses that kill people are actually "less fit" and will have fewer "offspring", therefore decreasing in number. The less harmful versions of the virus will keep people from being bedridden or even knowing they're sick, and will spread throughout the population. A good example of this is HPV.
Reply
Reply
I believe this is the method primarily used to control malaria and sleeping sickness (or was it yellow fever? ..it's been years since I took immunology in college) in Africa.
Reply
Reply
Leave a comment