# 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")\
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**Showing post:** 17

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**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\
**Post date:** [December 31, 2021, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-have-happened-if-omicron-was-the-original-covid-strain/956986/17 "2021-12-31T17:12:45Z")

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> [@snowthx](#):
>
> Isn’t Omicron less fatal than the original variant? While it appears it would have spread quicker, is it possible it would have been less deadly somehow?

Well, maybe. Last I heard, the evidence on omicron’s severity is uncertain: A smaller proportion of those infected with omicron are dying, but it’s unknown how much of that is due to vaccines and better care.

And yes, there’s a tendency for pathogens to evolve to be less deadly, because a dead host won’t spread the pathogen. But covid, of any strain, already has a low enough lethality that any selective pressure to become even less lethal would be extremely weak.

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