Health
Viking Age Smallpox Complicates Story of Viral Evolution – The New York Times
An extinct version of the smallpox virus dating to 1,400 years ago prompts speculation about viruses becoming more lethal over time.
Klaus Osterrieder, a pox virus specialist at the City University of Hong Kong and who was not part of the research, said that the analysis of the Viking virus, and the establishment of a new clade, was quite convincing.
The genetic details of the Viking virus are what prompted speculation that perhaps the smallpox virus may have become more deadly. Barbara Mühlemann, also a virologist at Cambridge and the first author on the paper, said that the general understanding of pox viruses is that the …
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