Coughing And Evolution

 

Source: Grok Image Generator

Forgive me while I put my biologist hat back on for a few minutes.

A long time ago I noticed something about coughing. If you walk in a public space, say as a hallway, and see someone coming toward you, there is a pretty good chance they are going to cough right when they pass close by. At first it seemed random, other than it mostly happens during cold weather, but after a few years it stopped seeming like a coincidence to me. It just happened to me over a week ago in a hotel lobby and now I'm sick. I think the sudden urge to cough just when you are near a stranger might be an evolutionary adaptation that facilitates the transmission of infectious agents.

Is it a host adaptation or a pathogen adaptation? Obviously this behavior would benefit a pathogen (parasite) because it would facilitate spread and reproduction. I don't think that's a new idea. But for the host, coughing to spread an infection might help to build up herd immunity. Maybe that's counterintuitive but it could provide some evolutionary advantage.

What I'm suggesting is that certain types of coughs are driven by a neurological component of infection rather than just an immune system reaction.

It might be a good research topic for a graduate thesis. At this point in my life I doubt I will ever work on it myself so feel free to steal the idea. If you are studying it as behavior I suppose it would need to be a blind study where the participants were not aware of the goal. That would raise ethical questions. 

If it works out I might appreciate being listed as a coauthor on any paper that gets published, even if I'm the last name on the list.😁