Throughout this study, the impact of changes in virulence and survival (and the relationship between these traits) are assessed with respect to the following four epidemic metrics: the number of infected individuals (asymptomatic and symptomatic) at the maximum (when the outbreak is at its most severe), the rate at which the peak infected population is reached (tmax−1), the total infected population after 30 days, and the basic reproductive ratio (R0). Importantly, among these signatures, the basic reproductive ratio is the most frequently used in epidemiology and benefits from familiarity and mathematical formalism (see Section 2.7). The other signatures are determined through simulations of an epidemic for a given set of parameter values. Nonetheless, this study’s inclusion of multiple features of the epidemic allows us to examine how variation in virus life-history traits may influence different aspects of an epidemic in peculiar ways.