> And notably, the virus that causes COVID-19 is most transmissible before symptoms set in, so its harmfulness to its host may not be as strong an influence on how it evolves as the trade-off model suggests.

> "The virus, speaking anthropomorphically, just wants to spread and have its genes replicated," said Dr. Amesh Adalja, an infectious disease specialist at Johns Hopkins University, in an interview. "If the best way for it is to spread by causing severe symptoms, it will continue to do that."

https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2021/dec/08/facebook-p...