Humans vs. Viruses
The Enemy: A virus can rapidly slip on new disguises to evade our immune systems, and it can become resistant to antiviral drugs.
The Means: Some species of viruses mutate hundreds of thousands of times faster than we do… Viruses depend on this rapid evolution to infect a host successfully. Poliovirus, for example, enters the body in the gut and then moves into the bloodstream, muscles and, in a small fraction of cases, the nervous system.
The Vulnerability: If a virus’s rate of mutation gets too high, mathematical studies suggest, it will suffer… Most mutations are bad… The defective offspring reproduce slower than their ancestors. After enough mutations pile up, the viruses can no longer replace their numbers. The entire population vanishes.
A Counter Measure: If increasing mutation rates can wipe out viruses, does that mean a mutation-increasing drug could cure a case of the flu? People have thought about this idea for years.
But Not Yet: 10 years after its initial successes, lethal mutagenesis has not made its way to the drug store.
Full report from The New York Times on wiping out viruses.
Think about it this way. Once an effective drug is discovered, the FDA will probably keep it off the market for the next two decades.
In the meantime, Larry, I’m afraid the viruses are going to win.