• Question: are children today stronger or weaker than in the past? (for viruses)

    Asked by Ell-Bell to Adrian, Gaia, Jim, Scott, Vicky on 10 Mar 2016.
    • Photo: Jim Barrett

      Jim Barrett answered on 10 Mar 2016:

      This isn’t really my area of expertise, I would imagine Gaia will give you the best answer. It is true that we eat a lot better now (That’s why people are bigger than they used to be) so my guess is chidren are stronger now.

    • Photo: Gaia Andreoletti

      Gaia Andreoletti answered on 10 Mar 2016:

      Hi Ell,

      I am not sure. I would say that we got stronger for some “old” viruses but we are weaker for the some others, especially the new ones. A virus evolves with times, just think about how many flu viruses there are around in winter time -not all of them as a vaccine.

    • Photo: Scott Lawrie

      Scott Lawrie answered on 11 Mar 2016:

      Difficult to tell for viruses. In general, though, children live a lot longer than they used to. Did you know a long time ago before proper medicine was invented, people were lucky if they grew to be 40 years old 😕

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