Zachary T. answered • 06/28/21
Pharm Made Phun with Dr. T
Probably the simplest way for an emerging viral disease to arise is when two viruses infect the same cell. If this happens the cell will not know which genes came from which virus, and as a result a mixed viral progeny will emerge. With billions of viral progeny one of the new viruses is bound to hit the genetic lottery. Additionally new viruses emerge from natural selection of existing viruses. For example, the SARS-CoV-2/COVID19 virus evolved from the original SARs virus, and a variant of the SARs virus that is over 90% genetically similar to the COVID19 virus was found in bats in China in 2015. These findings were published in Nature, but no one thought they were significant at the time.
