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marlenesdottir t1_iusctsu wrote

The virus doesn't want anything! It just replicates so often that by chance it got the mutation that will trigger a sneeze (in this case) and this mutation is coincidentally the best one to spread the virus itself (because mutation = just an error of the copy of virus DNA/RNA) so it's the mutation that survives and travel hosts and will be the one you will get.

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ThrowAwayIguess2424 t1_iv06bux wrote

You are being intentionally dense to OPs question. As they noted in the comment you responded to, they recognize there isn’t some active desire in the virus

Their question is whether the virus gains reproductive fitness via phenotypically causing sneezing in its host, or if the act of sneezing is an attempted response by the host to expel virus

They did not know how to phrase it that way, but what they meant is quite clear

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