• tweeks@feddit.nl
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    13
    ·
    1 year ago

    It feels so weird to me that the small change in degrees might actually kill a virus. I mean, wouldn’t all viruses by now have become accustomed to “warmer climates”?

    Or is it a cat / mouse game, our bodies being able to heat up more and them getting more fire resistant by the year. Was a fever less hot a couple of hundred years ago?

    • Umbrias@beehaw.org
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      1 year ago

      Heat resistance generally reduces a pathogens fitness at normal temps. The human body is also far more heat resistant than individual viruses thanks to being a big multi cellar organism with many expendable cells. A fever isn’t your only method of dealing with viruses either, you’re just stacking the deck against them do your immune system has a better time.

    • Omega_Haxors@lemmy.ml
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      2
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      edit-2
      1 year ago

      It’s in the air if viruses are even alive, you’re giving them way too much agency in the matter.

      • jasondj@ttrpg.network
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        1 year ago

        Viruses do adapt and mutate though. Look at all the various strains of H1N1 and SARS-COV-2.

        Just because they don’t reproduce without a host cell doesn’t mean evolution doesn’t happen. If a trait emerges that is beneficial to future generations, viruses carrying that trait can infect more cells and spread further.

        Usually it’s evolution itself that people give too much agency to. Mutations are a crapshoot. They can be beneficial or they can cause birth defects, sterility, prevent reaching sexual maturity, or make finding a mate excessively difficult. Or all of the above.

  • miss_brainfart@lemmy.ml
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    12
    ·
    1 year ago

    40+ is where it gets really interesting, introducing the possibility of getting delirious with weirdly unsettling hallucinations.

    Don’t fuel them by watching TV is all I’m gonna say.

    • crackajack@reddthat.com
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      1 year ago

      Last time I had intense fever dream was when I was a child. For some reason I never had another. As an adult, I would get sick with occasional high temperature but I would wake up immediately as soon as I sweat heavily.

  • Gestrid@lemmy.ca
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    6
    ·
    1 year ago

    Immune system to the infection: “If I die, I’m taking you with me!”