bonifartius 𒂼𒄄
covid armchair theory
ok theory time, very likely bullshit:
could it be possible that the vaccinations will cause the virus to mutate into attacking another receptor than ace2, therefore by chance getting reduced morbidiy? as ace2 getting attacked seems to be one of the main problems with covid.
covid armchair theory
@bonifartius It seems highly unlikely a vaccine would directly cause a mutation. It might create a condition in which a naturally occurring mutation is more advantageous to the survival of the virus, but the vaccine actually causing a mutation in the virus' RNA though? No I don't think so.
covid armchair theory
@b6hydra that's what i've meant, increased evolutionary pressure to select for another way to get into the cells.
mutations are nearly always spoken about as more dangerous, but it should work as well into the other direction. there is no evolutionary benefit in increased morbidity, it is a side effect of other benefits. the ideal virus has no noticeable negative consequences for the host and is easily spread.
covid armchair theory
@bonifartius Oh that makes more sense, sorry. In that case would actually expect morbidity to increase while mortality decreases. Morbidity is rate of infection, mortality is rate of death. That's the evolutionary trend other similar viruses seem to have followed. Whether or not that will be the case with COVID, I don't know. Even in armchair theory I'm hesitant to speculate too much haha.
covid armchair theory
> Morbidity is rate of infection,
The term [morbidity] may refer to the existence of any form of disease, or to the degree that the health condition affects the patient. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disease#Morbidity)
i mean this definition of morbidity. we target the spike protein which binds to ace2. binding to ace2 seems to be related to a lot of problems there are with covid. by using vaccines which generate antibodies against the said spike protein, we enable selection for other methods of binding to the cell than ace2.
covid armchair theory
@bonifartius OK, well I follow your logic. It makes sense but maybe I just don't know enough to make a specific prediction.