# What would have happened if Omicron was the original COVID strain?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-have-happened-if-omicron-was-the-original-covid-strain/956986>\
**Category:** The Quarantine Zone\
**Tags:** covid-quarantine\
**Created:** [December 31, 2021, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-have-happened-if-omicron-was-the-original-covid-strain/956986 "2021-12-31T15:14:32Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 4

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**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 11, 2022, 1:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-have-happened-if-omicron-was-the-original-covid-strain/956986/61 "2022-01-11T13:24:41Z")

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What mild 2009-2010 outbreak are you talking about? If you’re talking about the H1N1 flu, ask anybody who worked in a hospital at that time. They were slammed, not so badly as peak COVID, but it was pretty rough.

The 2009 flu was a novel version H1N1. The reason it wasn’t worse is that the drift versions from H1N1 Spanish Flu had been circling the globe for nearly a century. Most people have had it once, so the body has some degree of protection.

The reason viruses tend toward less virulence _in general_ is that evolution selects against a virus that kills its host before it transmits. Viruses don’t really want to kill you, they just want to alter your physiology enough that you spray it everywhere you go. A very deadly virus is just one that’s overdone things and will probably burn itself out quickly. The Spanish Flu lasted an uncomfortably long time in human terms, but it’s a really short evolutionary timeframe.

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