Thank you for the link Eddie. There are some things in there that are not in agreement with other credible sources I have read so I will be following up on them.Originally Posted by Wh00h0069
Not so. I take the mutability of microorganisms into account daily to be honest. But I also take into account other factors involved... Like selective pressure.
Odds are that an already established disease that is relatively mild will have a greater tendency to progress toward a more mild nature. The odds of it mutating into really nasty killer are much lower because the pressure to move that way is not there... Freak things do occur but odds are not in their favor
You have my full agreement on that.Diseases that we are good hosts for are not a big deal. We live with them, literally. Diseases we are a bad host for are of great concern.
Yes, that is exactly what I was getting at. That vid clip is talking about things like Ebola. So trying to use it as a comparison to this current flu outbreak is a flawed comparison.Comparing Ebola to the Flu is like comparing apples to oranges.
I never contended they did not. There is a reason we need a new vaccine each yearThe Flu is much easier to spread and takes much longer to kill in the rare cases that it does kill. The key point I am trying to make is that strains mutate.
And I do not deny that either. I was not trying to debate what this flu or some other flu strain may or may not be capable of. Like I said above, I was more making the point that the content discussed in that vid clip was being misapplied to tis flu conversation.I more deadly form of the common flu could kill millions. Its not likely but its possible.
Granted I may have missed it since human genetics is not in my primary field but I do not recall a study showing the global diversity of the human genome. If you have a reference I would love to read it. I have seen a number of population level studies using specific SNPs that showed high levels of homogeneity of those SNPs within the populations but beyond that I am not sure there are even enough complete human genomes from enough regions of the world to be able to make a full global comparison.What I was doing is comparing humans to bananas. Clearly you have done your homework. Do a bit more on human genetic diversity. You will find that humans are not genetically diverse when compared to other mammals. So I am sticking with my comparison.
Cheers
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