Viruses can be described as ingenious but they gain nothing from killing the host. SARS-CoV-2, the causative agent for #COVID19 has a tiny RNA genome less than 30k bases long—it’s goal is replication. It evolves to cause resp symptoms to be spread to more ppl /1
Though lethal in perhaps 3% of infections, this is essentially accidental & not something it evolves toward. It requires ATP & many other factors from living ppl to replicate & requires ppl to contaminate other ppl /2
We can arrest transmission with #soap & #PhysicalDistancing (#SocialDistancing not the right term bc we can be social remotely) /3
Nonetheless, the 🦠 presents drug targets & our lab is open. #Besafe #notadrill
Note that 1-3% lethality is disastrous for ppl. The science of "going viral" is about the virus evolving to infect and escape immunity against infection. It does not evolve to become more lethal but it will kill more ppl if it infects more ppl. Again #besafe
