RE: Why is new variant more deadly22 Jan 2021 22:11
There's no design, if a virus is fast enough that it kills the host before it spreads too much then it doesn't survive and dies out. If it eventually kills the host after spreading then it's reproduced and spreads more, becoming more common. The ones that survive better out of the host spread more, the ones that breed quicker spread more, the ones that are resistant spread more. It only takes a mutation in one particle to have an advantage and that mutation becomes more commonplace. If the mutation is a disadvantage then you don't see it as it dies out. There will be have mutations that are much more deadly, much faster, but they had no advantage. It's that simple, it's not intelligent, there's just millions per infected person replicating, and sometimes there's a difference, and the cycle times are short. Look at how we've bred dogs, here the advantage is that it does what we want, for viruses it's speed of reproduction and survivability.