FlyerTalk Forums - View Single Post - Coronavirus / COVID-19 : general fact-based reporting
Old Sep 24, 2021 | 12:17 am
  #9511  
chrisl137
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Originally Posted by GadgetFreak
Thats not exactly the way evolution works. It works because each organism has some genetic variants. And in some cases those genetic variants are more advantageous for the organism surviving and reproducing under some conditions. In terms of us evolving versus the virus, i haven’t done the math exactly with this virus but with a lot of virus I would think one infected person produces more viral particles than all the humans that have ever lived.
I was looking for some other information on the virus and came across this paper that reminded me of your reply. The authors estimate that at peak infection, each person has 10^9 to 10^11 coronavirus particles in their body. And they also note that if you do the obvious next calculation, at any given time there's probably less than 10 kg total of coronavirus circulating among all the humans on the planet. Possibly as little as 0.1 kg.

Pretty impressive for less than 10 kg of not-even-alive genetic material and protein wrapper to threaten a worldwide species like this.
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