Quote:
Originally Posted by Tyrone Slothrop
Please note: Everything you say in this paragraph suggests that non-genetic factors are much more important, the opposite of what you were suggesting.
No, quite the opposite. It could just be that the disease takes a different course in different people for non-genetic reasons.
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Perhaps I wasn’t as clear as I should have been. Where the old and sick survive and the young die, co-morbidities apparently are not relevant. Something else must be at work. Assume an 88 year old sails thru this with no impact save a cold. (I know of this.). This person is in the category of those who should be physically unable to resist infection and do well following infection. He must have some unique defense to it. Something in his genetic background that rendered him robust to it exists. But what? Who knows?
It’s a process of elimination. Physically, he’s not strong. At his age, his immune system is weak. Something else is at play. I cannot deduce a stronger answer to fill in that blank than genetics.
As to your second point, it could be. That smoking appears to confer protection proves a random thing you ingest or eat could be the reason. But that seems facially far less likely than some quirky advantage conferred thru genetics.
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