When it hit the world, the Spanish Flu was extremely deadly, killing large percentages even in faraway places like German Samoa. Yet it is still with us today, a rather tame little member of our menagerie of human ailments. The reason it is no longer deadly is twofold: First, pathogenic viruses tend to mutate into less-deadly strains over time, I suppose because of the evolutionary pressure caused by killing its host; second, our immune systems have strong responses to it, passed down through five generations via breast milk.
Hiding from viruses is only a good idea when the survival rate is significantly lower than 98%. And bottle feeding is sub-optimal. Those should be your two take-aways from this comment.
When it hit the world, the Spanish Flu was extremely deadly, killing large percentages even in faraway places like German Samoa. Yet it is still with us today, a rather tame little member of our menagerie of human ailments. The reason it is no longer deadly is twofold: First, pathogenic viruses tend to mutate into less-deadly strains over time, I suppose because of the evolutionary pressure caused by killing its host; second, our immune systems have strong responses to it, passed down through five generations via breast milk.
Hiding from viruses is only a good idea when the survival rate is significantly lower than 98%. And bottle feeding is sub-optimal. Those should be your two take-aways from this comment.
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