# What is Viral Fitness and How is it Measured?

**URL:** <https://discourse.peacefulscience.org/t/what-is-viral-fitness-and-how-is-it-measured/12939>\
**Category:** Conversation\
**Tags:** Science\
**Created:** [January 3, 2021, 12:14pm UTC](https://discourse.peacefulscience.org/t/what-is-viral-fitness-and-how-is-it-measured/12939 "2021-01-03T12:14:10Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 80

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**Author:** ![dsterncardinale](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.peacefulscience.org/dsterncardinale/32/9144_2.png) [@dsterncardinale](https://discourse.peacefulscience.org/u/dsterncardinale)\
**Post date:** [January 8, 2021, 3:47pm UTC](https://discourse.peacefulscience.org/t/what-is-viral-fitness-and-how-is-it-measured/12939/80 "2021-01-08T15:47:36Z")

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I’ve responded to that piece [at length](https://discourse.peacefulscience.org/t/stern-cardinale-response-to-price-carter-and-sanford-on-genetic-entropy/12773). Short version: I’m right and they’re wrong. One of the parts of the H1N1 paper I quoted above, which I will repeat below, bears out my criticism:

> [@dsterncardinale](#):
>
> Regardless, general attenuation due to genome-wide mutation accumulation might best explain the very low mortality [54] associated with the 2009 pandemic. **The earliest 2009 outbreak strain had already accumulated 1,889 mutations compared to the 1918 strain**.

Emphasis mine. They’re counting it as a single lineage.

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