Wonder if any of the advocates of China-style lockdowns in the West will ever admit they were wrong, now that even Beijing has? https://t.co/PiKIJxBIeA— Anya Parampil (@anyaparampil) May 28, 2023
Yes that's correct. Some of the recent-ish variants are associated with fewer hospital deaths and hospitalization in general, but teasing this apart from general degradation of reporting capacity and better medical treatmemt is difficult. And there's no reason this won't reverse in some way. The idea that viruses have a strong tendency to become less virulent is a myth. It only happens under specific conditions and for the most part SARS-CoV-2 probably doesn't meet them. One of the worst things about it is how long you can be infectious prior to disease and how infectious it is full stop. Its spread is not currently limited by killing off hosts, in contrast to something like ebola (which is still kicking, but is more prone to being self-limiting due to killing a person before they can spread it).
Yes that's correct. Some of the recent-ish variants are associated with fewer hospital deaths and hospitalization in general, but teasing this apart from general degradation of reporting capacity and better medical treatmemt is difficult. And there's no reason this won't reverse in some way. The idea that viruses have a strong tendency to become less virulent is a myth. It only happens under specific conditions and for the most part SARS-CoV-2 probably doesn't meet them. One of the worst things about it is how long you can be infectious prior to disease and how infectious it is full stop. Its spread is not currently limited by killing off hosts, in contrast to something like ebola (which is still kicking, but is more prone to being self-limiting due to killing a person before they can spread it).