Just another comment on purpose

[Ian A. York]

In article <51713a$o4b at net.bio.net>,
Paul Digard  <pd1 at mole.bio.cam.ac.uk> wrote:
>
>        I'm currently reading "The evolution of infectious diseases" by
>Paul Ewald. He argues that the prevalent idea that pathogens always
>evolve towards apathogenicity ("balance") in a particular host
>species is bullshit, and represents a fundamental misunderstanding
>of how selection works.  If I've understood it correctly, selection

The bionet.virology newsgroup had a fairly long discussion of this around
a year ago, which should be available in the archives.  Most of the
people participating in the discussion fully agreed with Ewald (I was one
of those people) and cited a number of examples supporting that view -
which really (I think) is pretty obvious.  Anyone who disagrees should
contemplate the highly successful rabies virus.

Ian
--
      Ian York   (iayork at panix.com)  <http://www.panix.com/~iayork/>
      "-but as he was a York, I am rather inclined to suppose him a
       very respectable Man." -Jane Austen, The History of England