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God help me, I'm going to regret posting in the middle of this argument.
There is clearly a misconception being thrown about. The idea that viruses become weaker, or less lethal, over time is not necessarily true. Does it often happen? Yes. But a virus seeks to spread its genetic material. There is nothing in there that requires it to mutate to become less virulent. COVID-19 is not particularly deadly. It just isn't. It's not Ebola. It could continue to mutate to spread more easily and maintain its current virulence or even become more virulent. I don't think that's likely, but it is absolutely within the realm of possibility.
Now, to balance that, anecdotal reports from doctors in Africa are that the newest variant is manifesting with less severe symptoms, most notably a decrease in the loss of taste and smell which has been a hallmark of COVID infections thus far.
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