Quote:
Originally Posted by DodgerIrish
But, isn't herd immunity why it would work?
It needs to stay alive so it weakens, therefore it can get passed around more freely.
If it is passed around freely it has no selective pressure to weaken until a large part of the herd has it. Just as likely it would get stronger initially. And we don't even know how long protective immunity would even last.
Also, as it is a RNA virus (like Flu), it's mutation rate will be much higher than a DNA virus, bacteria or parasite; and there is a non zero chance that it will mutate into a strain that can circumvent any adaptive protection the herd has.
Dengue is an example of a virus that exposure to one strain offers no protection against another, and in fact makes it much more deadly.