# Is it physically possible for a coronavirus variant to be as contagious as omicron but as deadly as MERS **URL:** \ **Category:** The Quarantine Zone\ **Tags:** covid-quarantine\ **Created:** [January 15, 2022, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-physically-possible-for-a-coronavirus-variant-to-be-as-contagious-as-omicron-but-as-deadly-as-mers/957864 "2022-01-15T20:38:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2022, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-physically-possible-for-a-coronavirus-variant-to-be-as-contagious-as-omicron-but-as-deadly-as-mers/957864/1 "2022-01-15T20:38:16Z")
is that possible or is there no way to know. I don’t know to what degree it’s a trade off between the two traits. ---
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2022, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-physically-possible-for-a-coronavirus-variant-to-be-as-contagious-as-omicron-but-as-deadly-as-mers/957864/2 "2022-01-15T20:48:56Z")
Anything is possible. Deadliness is self-limiting if it kills or incapacitates the host before the virus has time to spread. But such a virus would definitely cause some initial chaos until we understood what it was. And it was be even more devastating if it had a long period of asymptomatic spread before turning deadly. ---
**Author:** ![Esprise\_Me](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/esprise_me/32/2947_2.png) [@Esprise\_Me](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Esprise_Me)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2022, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-physically-possible-for-a-coronavirus-variant-to-be-as-contagious-as-omicron-but-as-deadly-as-mers/957864/3 "2022-01-15T21:56:04Z")
I don’t believe there’s any such trade-off. ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2022, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-physically-possible-for-a-coronavirus-variant-to-be-as-contagious-as-omicron-but-as-deadly-as-mers/957864/4 "2022-01-15T22:15:33Z")
Natural selection tends to favor lower virulence, because milder symptoms allow the host to continue to mingle with other people and infect them. The reason Ebola has never become a widespread problem is that it debilitates people so quickly that they are bedridden or dead before they can infect a lot of other people. The nightmare scenario is a strain that is highly contagious with mild symptoms in the early stages, allowing infected people to continue to interact with others and spread the infection; then longer term symptoms that become much more serious. This is possible, but unlikely - mild symptoms in the short term are correlated with mild symptoms in the long term, a slow onset tends to allow the immune system time to react. So Omicron is following the _likely_ course of evolution, but it’s still a relief to see it happening. ---
**Author:** ![Bootb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e19b73/32.png) [@Bootb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bootb)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2022, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-physically-possible-for-a-coronavirus-variant-to-be-as-contagious-as-omicron-but-as-deadly-as-mers/957864/5 "2022-01-16T16:20:52Z")
> [@Riemann](#): > > The reason Ebola has never become a widespread problem is that it debilitates people so quickly that they are bedridden or dead before they can infect a lot of other people. And because it’s only mildly contagious. ---
**Author:** ![SmartAleq](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smartaleq/32/163_2.png) [@SmartAleq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmartAleq)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2022, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-physically-possible-for-a-coronavirus-variant-to-be-as-contagious-as-omicron-but-as-deadly-as-mers/957864/6 "2022-01-16T19:03:14Z")
With a high enough percentage of maskholes and antivax morons in play I’m sure we’ll eventually find out what’s possible. ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2022, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-physically-possible-for-a-coronavirus-variant-to-be-as-contagious-as-omicron-but-as-deadly-as-mers/957864/7 "2022-01-28T16:54:35Z")
Just saw an article about NeoCov today. Hopefully it doesn’t lead to anything or spread to humans > **[NeoCov: Wuhan scientists warn of new type of Coronavirus with high death,...](https://zeenews.india.com/world/neocov-wuhan-scientists-warn-of-new-type-of-coronavirus-with-high-death-infection-rate-2431385.html)** > > The startling revelation has been made by the scientists from the Wuhan University and Institute of Biophysics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. The new study is not yet peer-reviewed and has been released in a preprint on bioRxiv. > Sputnik cited the Wuhan scientists as saying that NeoCoV carries with it the potentially combined high mortality rate of MERS-CoV (where one in three infected people die on average) and the high transmission rate of the current SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus. ---
**Author:** ![bordelond](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bordelond/32/150_2.png) [@bordelond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bordelond)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2022, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-physically-possible-for-a-coronavirus-variant-to-be-as-contagious-as-omicron-but-as-deadly-as-mers/957864/8 "2022-01-28T17:04:21Z")
> [@Wesley\_Clark](#): > > Just saw an article about NeoCov today. Hopefully it doesn’t lead to anything or spread to humans The ultimate source of that report is Sputnik – Russian state-owned radio. I’ll wait for information about that serious of a threat to come from better sources. FWIW, if you check Google News for “NeoCov” … some portion of Indian media (like Zee News) is reporting on it, while most all media elsewhere in the world is ignoring it.