Viruses and evolution

Really brief article.

sciencefocus.com/the-human- … evolution/

Would any life have evolved as we have without the affects of viruses? Seems a rather novel twist to forcing life to evolve by killing it in the process.

I am repeatedly hearing from the press and statements they are reporting on that No One is Immune.

Certainly there is a wide range of resistance, from not at all resistant to highly resistant. Those with the least resistance and or other underlying medical conditions die. Those with the most resistance, in other words those who are asymptomatic end up spreading the virus unknowingly. A virus’s genetic material ends up encoded in human genetic material. It becomes a trait in human reproduction.

Seems like with all the gene sequencing capacity we have, we should be able to isolate the gene or genes responsible for this resistance. Trace this back through genealogy to it’s source. Determine that ancestry, if you are related, you would be resistant to getting killed by the virus unless you had other underlying medical conditions.

I don’t see how they could know that. They can’t have tested large numbers of people who are not showing symptoms. I mean, that’s a waste of labor in a time when health care systems are in crisis. They may have found that some people who show no symptoms are carriers and can infect others. But I can’t see any way they could draw a blanket conclusion.

I don’t either.

That’s because if you say that some people are immune, then a bunch of dimwits are going to think that they are immune and they are going to spread the virus by breaking the isolation rules and being careless.

To lie about one’s knowledge as a government official or someone representing science or medical authorities has both short term and long term bad side effects. You may well be right, but I think it’s a bad approach.

I would say it’s a bad approach too.

On a side, there has been a rapidly growing interest in the subject, whereby the host parasite relationship has been pointed to as of being significant: not only from the point of view of archaic bat-virus relationship, but of a tangential one- with bio-social implications.

The objective here is a rexamination of evolutionary principles, as per too sudden evolutionary progressions, causing animal extinguishing effects.

The balance of nature has perhaps been upset by unnatural lapses in that progression, sort of a trickle down effect that sudden environmental changes have caused ?

{Merely a hypothetical, although a myriad of references can be offered on request}

Thanks Meno_ I was originally thinking along that linage as well. But it was a poorly worded opening post on my part.

Hi to All,

I wrote on this topic back in 2004 @

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=142478&hilit=Viruses

A somewhat surprising fact was that it was likely that the development of mammals was the direct result of a specific HERV virus (it’s in the topic referenced).

Thanks Ed

The thing about the corona is that If you are asymptomatic, it is most likely that the virus will pass through you without causing any serious health issue. But, you can still spread the virus to others. Not showing symtoms simply means that your immue system is fighting the virus well and wiil defeat it too with out any outside help.

with love,
sanjay

Someone is always immune, some people are even immune to HIV.