Originally Posted by
jono
Yeah. It's just too easy to forget to look at what that reason is and imagine the result is itself a broadly applicable principle. For example, mid-delta I had a friend tell me he hoped the virus would "continue to attenuate" based on that basic assumption. But delta was both more contagious and deadlier, because the things that made it more fit didn't make it less deadly.
I wonder if the most fit virus isn't the one that kills all its infertile hosts after they gain immunity? If the reproduction of naive hosts increases that's good for the virus.