Re:I'm doomed. (Score 1)

Actually, no. I've published extensively on HIV/SIV evolution. I have never had an editor censor or otherwise limit use of the terms 'evolution' or 'evolve'. As others have pointed out, the priimary issue with using 'evolution' with a virus like HIV is that it implies, to most people, benefit. While viral variants are clearly selected for by outside pressure, the resulting viruses generally replicate less well than the parental viruses in the *absence* of the selector -- as evidenced by sequence reversion that often happens upon transmission of a drug-resistant/immune selected/cxcr4-tropic virus into a new host. So with HIV at least, 'evolutionary benefit' is in the eye of the beholder, or more accurately, in the context of its replication.