On 06/06/2020 10:18, Recliner wrote:
One reason is that evolutionary pressures makes the virus less lethal.
After all, for the virus to survive and thrive, its hosts also needs to
stay well enough to mix with other potential hosts. If a lethal strain of
the virus immediately makes infected hosts ill, and kills many of them, the
virus can't spread. Conversely, if it mutates to cause minimal symptoms, it
will spread widely. So, benign mutations are more successful than lethal
ones.

If we're really lucky, hosts of the benign variant may develop immunity
to the original versions, providing us with a free vaccine.