[erhk]

Mutations which improve transmission and longetivity will, in general, become more prevalent. Proliferation begets proliferation. You cannot transmit a strain if you are at home in bed from its severity.

Help me understand how a virus can replicate without being detected but can also increase its lethality.

We already have an asymptomatic and infectious incubation period. If that kept stretching longer then you are delaying the lytic cycle even longer? Or does propogation and ultimately viral load also happen as a slower burn? Eventually you will have damaged too many cells.

[gls2ro]

I said “visible effects” which is different than detecting a virus in human body. That mean pre-symptomatic transmission.

I am not up to date with latest research but it seemed to be that SARS-CoV-2 is a virus that can be transmitted before symptoms onset.

Regarding replication without being detected but also increased lethality this you might be right that doing the math maybe the hypothesis I present seems far fetched.

Still I guess that a slight bump in mortality will create a lot of deaths due to its transmission.

Of course like I said I am just expressing an opinion that might be very wrong.