Get 3 weeks of free access to CuriosityStream by visiting http://curiositystream.com/minute and using the promo code "minute" There's something surprising that helps determine how damaging...
========== Hi, this is Kate from MinuteEarth. Let’s say you’re an infectious disease
with dreams of spreading as far and wide as possible. Your logical starting point might be to invade
a host and make as many mini-yous as fast as you can to spread to as many other hosts
as you can. However, that would be probably be counterproductive,
because the more of yourself you make, the worse your host feels. And the worse they feel, the less likely they
are to go out and interact with other potential hosts. That’s a problem if you're like most pathogens
and require close contact, like a handshake, a shared drink, or something more...intimate,
to move from host to host. This reliance on close contact imposes a major
constraint: most diseases have to limit the damage...