viruses everywhere

[Denni Schnapp]

Fran Disbury wrote that the rabbit population in Australia recovered from myxamotosis because the rabbits "outbred" the virus, surviving individuals multiplying
rapidly allowing the population to recover. It is true that people would probably not be able to do tat. However, it appears that the myxamotosis virus itself 
changed, not the host. As host density fell, less virulent strains were at an
advantage because they were spread over a longer period of time since the host
survived. So there is reason for optimism, it does not pay a virus in the long
run to be too virulent. It pays only while host densities are high. Unfortunately, with people this is the case. So OK, probably "only" 90% of the population 
might die in a major epidemic but that is little consolation!
Cheers,

Denni