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Today's novel stupidity strain: people sliding into my mentions with idiotic cod-evolutions theories that hold that viruses will, over time, attain a peaceful coexistence because more virulent and deadly strains kill their hosts before they get a chance to spread.
While this is superficially true, it ignores the timescales and specifics. For example, the equilibrium a virus reaches with its host might involve wiping out a whole population, hitching a ride with another species, finding another population, and wiping IT out, too.
Or a pathogen might indeed attain equilibrium within a population, but only after wiping out 1/3-1/2 of every living soul every decade or two for a century or two. That's "herd immunity, Black Death style."
Or, you know, a virus might wipe itself out by wiping out the ENTIRE population of hosts (think of pre-Colombian civilizations that were entirely wiped out by settler-colonialist pathogens). It's true that this might drive the virus to extinction (as well as its host species).
Nevertheless, the pastel-Qanon/naturopath/woo/denier pandemic seems to have mutated its own new strain, who say we don't need vaccines or even masks, because if we just let the virus run its course, it will achieve a harmonious existence with us.
This stupidity pandemic - like other pathogens - will eventually produce an equilibrium. If we listen to these assholes, they will murder enough of us that the virus's spread is interrupted.
Problem solved!
Problem solved!
