That’s a key line from a Twitter thread by “rational optimist” Matt Ridley. Here’s the whole thread:
Earlier in the year the same was said about the alpha (Kent) variant, that it was more “virulent”.
That was untrue.
Virulent means “harmful”, not “infectious”.
— Matt Ridley (@mattwridley) June 29, 2021
If anything the evidence is suggesting that the delta variant may be less virulent, but more transmissable (infectious).
Hard to be sure this is true, though, given that the vulnerable old are now protected by vaccines.https://t.co/3HOrSi69Xd
— Matt Ridley (@mattwridley) June 29, 2021
That’s why there are 200 kinds of common cold, none of which is virulent.
Including OC43, a coronavirus that probably caused a terrible pandemic in 1889 but is now a fairly mild and common cold:https://t.co/PBJKyjWdWM
— Matt Ridley (@mattwridley) June 29, 2021
This appears to be what happened in 1918, Paul Ewald argued, when severe flu cases were evacuated from the front line to a series of staging posts, field hospitals and trains, while mild cases slept it off in a dugout.https://t.co/rbGKKxpGrY
— Matt Ridley (@mattwridley) June 29, 2021
In other words, lockdowns (whether necessary or not) probably delayed the evolution of the virus into a milder form.
That is now happening, and is our least worst option given that eradication is impossible and the virus may become more transmissable in response to vaccination.
— Matt Ridley (@mattwridley) June 29, 2021
In general, there is not nearly enough thinking along the lines of “Darwinian medicine” within the medical establishment, as @RandyNesse has long argued.
Repeat 100 times: Evolution is not mutation. It is mutation and selection.
— Matt Ridley (@mattwridley) June 29, 2021
