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Prior coronavirus species tend to evolve toward non-lethality because their peak transmission coincides with peak symptoms. Covid-19 is not like that and so has no evolutionary push towards non-lethality.

A variant of COVID as lethal as MERS would spread just as well since carriers are asymptomatic most of the time they are infecting others.

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I agree that asymptomatic transmission reduces this pressure, but symptomatic SARS-CoV-2 carriers are often still contagious, and there is more public will to enact extreme precautions for more lethal illnesses.

So there is still some evolutionary benefit for lower lethality.

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