COVID-19: Epidemic Disaster or Evolution Pressure?
Abstract
COVID-19 has undergone rapid spread worldwide, with the number of
infected patients and death events being increased at exponential rates,
and thus considered an epidemic disaster. However, SARS-CoV-2 has
reduced case-fatality rate and enhanced transmission capacity that favor
its propagation and make it evolutionarily more advanced than the other
coronaviruses. Further, SARS-CoV-2 preserves virulence to certain
patients while keeping some patients symptom-free. It is hypothesized
here that SARS-CoV-2 functions as a natural selection pressure for human
evolution. That is, COVID-19 is an epidemic disaster at the individual
level but may be evolutionarily beneficial for the human at the
population level, and survived individuals from SARS-CoV-2 infection may
be more tolerable to redox pressure and not suffer anymore from diseases
such as hypertension if without external intervention.