http://www.americanscientist.org/template/AssetDetail/assetid/45930;jsessionid=baagGcSyTPpJry?fulltext=true

According to Professor Paul Turner, “the temptation to cheat appears to be a universal fact of life. In the struggle to survive and reproduce that drives evolution, selfish individuals may be favored over cooperators because they are more energy efficient.” The simple fact that taking shortcuts means better survival is the basis for Turner’s research into evolutionary game theory which suggests that the more a virus “cheats” the better it grows; however, this evolutionary technique eventually reaches a dead-end. Although the immediate effects of this “cheating” are very favorable, it requires a great deal on other “cheating viruses” to participate in surviving. The example of paracites-on-paracites is made to help illustrate this fact. Turner claims that these pairs assist each other by neutralizing the effects of certain vaccines on each other but end up requiring them to spend even more energy to counteract against other vaccines otherwise it becomes impossible to survive independently.

Ultimately, we see the rise of a “prisoner’s dilemma” in this virus game where “cooperators/cheaters” act in a quid-pro-quo relationship in order to survive.