It's the opposite - the more it spreads, the higher the chance of variants forming. The article in OP touches on this, plus the possibility of variants forming in animal populations.
It's clear we need effective strategies to deal with these kinds of pandemics (like China), and that the "let it spread and hope" method the west is adopting is going to kill a lot of people and make things worse.
I agree totally about china showing the correct way forward.
However I'm hesitant to buy into all the latest covid doomerism. The idea that a new and more contagious and more deadly and vaccine escaping variant seems not certain to me
Nothing is certain, of course. However, it's generally not productive to assume the best case, because you end up with the American response instead of the Chinese one. In the case of a global pandemic, I prefer to stay on the safe side.
The article in OP touches on variants, and it indicates there's no reason to expect it to go away after Omicron, which many seem to.
The possibility of more deadly variants occurring and spreading is always there - as far as I understand, the idea that viruses generally get less deadly is true, historically, but over much longer timelines than what we're talking about.
The possibility of more deadly variants occurring and spreading is always there
This is true of all other viruses also, no? This doesn't seem convincing that we need to be so worried about this possibility with COVID
I'm in full support of being prepared for the worst but there does seem to be a strain of doomerism out there that doesn't just want to prepare for the worst but also to insist that the worst is certain.
This coronavirus seems uniquely adaptive because of the incredibly high viral loads that are found in both vaccinated and unvaccinated people. Every copy of the virus carries the risk of a new, more dangerous variant.
Other viruses are not currently or historically infecting millions of hosts every day. When there's a million people infected every day the chance of a worse variant is a million times higher than if there was 1 case a day.
It's the opposite - the more it spreads, the higher the chance of variants forming. The article in OP touches on this, plus the possibility of variants forming in animal populations.
It's clear we need effective strategies to deal with these kinds of pandemics (like China), and that the "let it spread and hope" method the west is adopting is going to kill a lot of people and make things worse.
I agree totally about china showing the correct way forward.
However I'm hesitant to buy into all the latest covid doomerism. The idea that a new and more contagious and more deadly and vaccine escaping variant seems not certain to me
Nothing is certain, of course. However, it's generally not productive to assume the best case, because you end up with the American response instead of the Chinese one. In the case of a global pandemic, I prefer to stay on the safe side.
The article in OP touches on variants, and it indicates there's no reason to expect it to go away after Omicron, which many seem to.
The possibility of more deadly variants occurring and spreading is always there - as far as I understand, the idea that viruses generally get less deadly is true, historically, but over much longer timelines than what we're talking about.
This is true of all other viruses also, no? This doesn't seem convincing that we need to be so worried about this possibility with COVID
I'm in full support of being prepared for the worst but there does seem to be a strain of doomerism out there that doesn't just want to prepare for the worst but also to insist that the worst is certain.
This coronavirus seems uniquely adaptive because of the incredibly high viral loads that are found in both vaccinated and unvaccinated people. Every copy of the virus carries the risk of a new, more dangerous variant.
Other viruses are not currently or historically infecting millions of hosts every day. When there's a million people infected every day the chance of a worse variant is a million times higher than if there was 1 case a day.