#Bat corona viruses

[jaideepkhanduja]

Unveiling Hidden Dangers: FBI Emails Reveal Concerns Over U.S.-Funded Virus Experiments in Wuhan

Unveiling Hidden Dangers: FBI Emails Reveal Concerns Over U.S.-Funded Virus Experiments in Wuhan #COVID19Origins #GainOfFunction #WuhanLab #FauciFunding #FBIDocuments #VirusResearch #PandemicPrevention bioethics #LabLeakTheory #PublicHealthSafety

The recent revelation of emails and documents concerning U.S.-funded experiments on coronaviruses in China, particularly at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, has rekindled concerns and debates about the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic and the nature of scientific research involving dangerous pathogens. This disclosure, obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request by Judicial Watch,…

[asparklethatisblue]

also bats aren’t as dangerous to humans as people think. First of all they can’t physically hurt us more than a tiny mouse biting, which is unlikely anyway as bats generally avoid humans (and vampire bats don’t really drink human blood and if they do their bite is not very painful).

as for disease. Yes rabies are horrid, but you’re more likely to get those from a dog than a bat, and the rule of “just don’t go bothering and petting wildlife” generally applies. Growing up I was taught that stray dogs and deer or bunnies that act strange are the issue. Any wild animal that is too sick to run away or be bothered by a human could get you terribly sick. Every professional bat researcher I heard speak about this says they get appropriate vaccines but never had an issue with infections in general. and as for Covid and corona viruses in general? Yes bats do carry it, but so far the strains that were found first jumped to another animal, mutated, and only then got to humans. It’s actually a sign of humans encroaching on bat habitats, you get closer and closer to their caves, cut down forests, destroy sources of food, and the bats are forced in closer contact to human settlements. There was research in Australia showing how healthy bats are actually very good at keeping viruses in check. It’s only when their food sources dwindle and they get weaker that their immune system can no longer cope and they start infecting other species. And we need them! They’re extremely crucial to ecosystems all over the world! Entire agriculture systems would collapse without them!

[oh-yes-i-did-not]

Okay so for those either too young to remember or who were alive during but it never really affected them based on where they lived, Mad Cow Disease

Mad Cow Disease was thing in the late 80′s and the entire 90′s, all the way to early 00′s and it was an international scare. Like, we had disinfecting stations on international airports because of it.

It was a virus passed from animals to humans and this didn’t happen somewhere random in Asia, where, idk, bats and pigs interact and infect the food chain, but in Europe. In UK to be precise.

It affected only cows at first and only agriculture paid any attention, since any animal infected needed to be put down. Like no shit, those animals couldn’t even walk with how bad they were shaking and if you want to google this, be prepared. It doesn’t look nice, it looks ugly and horrifying and it will likely traumatize someone.

And the mode of transfer was not evident. There are videos and photos, showing cow carcasses being burned and someone trying to claim that was early days but that was very much not the reality in the beginning. In fact, all the research showed it is not possible for Mad Cow Disease to infect humans. In fact2, a similar disease was already known in lambs for decades and that one could not infect humans, so it was a no brainer to say, a similar disease in cows can also NEVER infect humans, so no precautions with the carcass needed.

But the thing is, how we processed meat had changed drastically between the lambs being a stable, grown at home meat, and then cows, or beef, becoming dominant with supermarkets. This is basically the “you see this, this is animal paste from a teletubby machine” video, except the paste wasn’t fed to humans. It’s known as meat and bone meal and it was all the leftover stuff from abattoirs, ground up and fed back to the animals as valuable protein.

You might see where this is going.

So let’s talk about prion diseases.

Well, as much as I, a random person know about them. Prions are proteins and proteins are not DNA or RNA, which are most likely familiar to anyone who has googled Covid, or any novel corona viruses in general. They’re the viruses a vaccine is made for.

Prion diseases are, in fact, mostly known because of cannibalism. Kuru is a famous disease among one specific tribe on Pacific Islands, caused by their tradition of consuming their relatives flesh after death. In fact, I just fact checked on which ocean and was told that the Kuru was mainly affecting kids and women because the men ate limbs and muscles and women and kids got the brain and basically all the best, fatty parts. Which, ironically, carried the disease.

And yes, in any survivalist culture fat, innards, and cartilage and the “bad parts” are the best because they contain the most nutrients so no, you do no get to twist this into the men taking the best, so fuck of terfs. This post is not for you.

Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease was already known by the time of Mad Cow Disease, it was a brain destroying disease affecting the elderly population. Mad Cow became variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease, or vCJD and was picked up because it mainly affected the young.

And in case you didn’t get it already, the link was infected cow carcasses being processed to meat and bone meal to be fed back to cows, because infected prion diseases spread through cannibalism. Or more specifically, spine and brain stem.

(so you’re relatively safe eating just the thigh or any muscle tbh)

So in the end, Mad Cow Disease didn’t kill that many people, only few hundreds, if I recall correctly.

But the thing that was found out about the prion diseases because of Kuru was that while some people exhibited symptoms and died really early, most had an incubation period of DECADES, aka 50 years. So the inevitable conclusion about vCJD is that it has only claimed it’s first victims and that majority are still waiting to appear and die.

Because the thing about prion diseases? There is currently no cure. And the fact that no one seems to remember this and that there is no awareness of it is not helping.

[anandambyshrutimaheshwari]

Corona virus

Coronaviruses are a family of viruses that can cause respiratory illness in humans. They are called “corona” because of crown-like spikes on the surface of the virus. Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) and the common cold are examples of coronaviruses that cause illness in humans.The new strain of coronavirus — SARS-CoV-2 — was first reported in Wuhan, China in December 2019. It has since spread to every country around the world.Coronaviruses are often found in bats, cats and camels. The viruses live in but don’t infect the animals. Sometimes these viruses then spread to different animal species. The viruses may change (mutate) as they transfer to other species. Eventually, the virus can jump from animal species and begin to infect humans. In the case of SARS-CoV-19, the first people infected are thought to have contracted the virus at a food market that sold meat, fish and live animals.

By- shruti maheshwari

[ithisatanytime]

6SNOT - DAHMER (Official Music Video)

  the head of the FBI came out and “confirmed” that the origin of “novel” corona was a Wuhan lab leak. just a reminder this is total bullshit, its a complete fabrication, its just untrue. its false. its a red herring. every year we get some strain of viral upper respiratory illness, we monitor chinas flu season to try to make a prediction on which of the hundreds of viruses we classify as a cold or flu will go viral in the west for our flu season, this is the reason why flu shots are not one hundred percent effective, its a bit of a guessing game as to which strain of virus to mass vaccinate against. its sort of like being a record company and guessing which song of an almbum to make into a single. these viruses mutate constantly, otherwise they’d simply infect us all once wed gain immunity and that would be that, they constantly mutate. covid is one of these viruses, its common, it mutates all the time just like other common cold and flu viruses, and thats what happened in 2020 no bat soup or wuhan lab leak, corona just mutated as it does every single year, the only difference that year was an unprecedented media fear mongering campaign.

 china and russia comprise the two biggest threats to western jewish hegemony and they are neighbors and they are friends lol. the united states was running ops in china just prior to the covid outbreak, the cia was confirmed stirring anti ccp sentiment and trying to spark a civil war for hong kong independence i literally saw videos of what were clearly CIA operators giving lengthy and frankly bizarre speaches about hong kong independence on subway trains before being arrested and carted off. i believe that the early videos of people convulsing in the streets (sleepy chinese doctors, remember?) and the like were created by chinese actors (not in the professional sense, i mean like agent) loyal to the CIA contingent that was confirmed to be operating in china at the time, the CCP capitalized on this and used it as an opportunity to try and get rid of the revolutionary element and its foreign (See jewish) supporters, arresting them under the guise of lockdown compliance. i believe the covid scam was meant as a failsafe break glass in case of emergency sort of deal for powerful jews around the world, i believe the main goals of the scam were domestic in nature, and have to do with the need to change how jews exert dominance over nonjews after the proliferation of the internet basically destroyed their tried and true method of control, namely propaganda. the FBI and all the same people who told you that the same damn flu that comes around every couple of years is a plague are now telling you that this totally benign and weak flu season was actually a bioweapon designed in a lab by enemies of the jewish banking cartels, its all very convenient, especially when you consider that even by the governments own fucked up and inflated metrics covid is less dangerous than even a typical flu for young people. so their plan was to design a weapon that targets the elderly and improves are economy? lmao.

  the lableak theory that is being pushed is just a push for war with china. as it stands the only people fighting those who would trick you into chopping your dick and balls off are young russian men and young men from the muslim world. does that sit well with you? i dont even like the idea of another man pumping my gasoline.

[tonkiprofits]

Corona tracker hungary

#Corona tracker hungary update

#Corona tracker hungary full

#Corona tracker hungary trial

In addition, the eleven venues have different guidelines for stadium admission.

Anyone who feels unwell or has symptoms of Covid-19 should not go into the stadium.

based on Current projection scenario by November 1, 2022. Total deaths are the estimated number of deaths attributable to COVID-19, including unreported deaths.

Signs in the stadium will point the way. Reported deaths are the number of deaths officially reported as due to COVID-19.

Everyone should also stay in their seats during halftime and limit movement as much as possible.

Handshakes, hugs, high fives and close contact with others are to be avoided.

Disinfectant will be available throughout the stadium for this purpose.

Washing and disinfecting hands is recommended.

Only the seat indicated on the ticket may be used.

A minimum distance of 1.50 metres must be maintained.

Masks are compulsory in and around the stadium.

The following hygiene and distance rules will then apply on site: It may therefore be necessary to arrive earlier than usual. If you have a ticket for the European Football Championship, you have to be prepared for some innovations when visiting the stadium compared to football matches before the pandemic.Įach ticket holder will be allocated a 30-minute window to enter the stadium before the match. Would you like to know which COVID-19 requirements apply and which measures are in place at the destination you intend to visit (in the. If you know of an example we can add and track, please contact us with an open source link, at. This is a collective project led by PI alongside its global Network. Campaign Rewards FAQ 7 Updates 30 Comments 1,265 Community. 3,736 backers pledged 1,377,847 to help bring this project to life.

#Corona tracker hungary full

This page will be updated as measures are reported. A Smaller, Sleeker, Better solution for Full Body Tracking in SteamVR. When the pandemic is over, such extraordinary measures must be put to an end and held to account. But all of them must be temporary, necessary, and proportionate. Charts Countries Daily briefing Age / Gender / Medical conditions Compare multiple countries. Country name change: US is now United States, UK is United Kingdom, Mainland China is now China. Some may be effective and based on advice from epidemiologists, others will not be. Compare Coronavirus statistics between multiple countries. Others use exemptions in data protection laws to share data.

#Corona tracker hungary trial

7, 2021, EnGeneIC announced that it had begun a Phase 1 trial in Australia.

#Corona tracker hungary update

Many of those measures are based on extraordinary powers, only to be used temporarily in emergencies. They are producing the vaccine, known as COVID-19-EDV, primarily for people with compromised immune systems. Hungary Coronavirus update with statistics and graphs: total and new cases, deaths per day, mortality and recovery rates, current active cases, recoveries. Unprecedented levels of surveillance, data exploitation, and misinformation are being tested across the world. This is a general overview and status of places affected by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the virus which causes. Bats may carry rabies-like viruses in this country. However some animals may pose a greater risk of rabies for travellers, e.g. Some of these measures impose severe restrictions on people’s freedoms, including to their privacy and other human rights. Most travellers to this country are considered to be at low risk for rabies. Tech companies, governments, and international agencies have all announced measures to help contain the spread of the COVID-19, otherwise known as the Coronavirus.

[pixeens]

Corona Virus: Causes, Symptoms, and Treatment 2022

Corona Virus: Causes, Symptoms, and Treatment 2022

It is an infection with the SARS-CoV2 virus. I first discovered it in Wuhan, China on 31st December 2019. It is similar to SARS-CoV1, which caused the 2003-2004 SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) outbreak. Covid 19 is included in the coronavirus family which provides for SARS and MERS (middle east respiratory symptoms) viruses. It mainly developed from bats. It is spread from country to…

[theoddsideofme]

Bats play a hugely important role in Earth's ecosystem. They eat tons of insects and pollinate plants and disperse seeds for hundreds of plant species. But unfortunately they also carry over 130 different kinds of viruses. SARS was one that killed 800 people and made 8,100 people ill. Ebola is another that killed 11,310 people and infected 28,616. The problem is when these viruses jump to new species and it happens often. And it's human activity that makes that likely to happen. In wildlife markets, like the one in Wuhan, animals that would rarely mix in nature come together. A bat in a cage could be stacked over a civet. And those animals are then mixed with humans — for example, butchers handling animals without gloves. it's easy to imagine how an infected animal could spread the virus to humans. "The animal can sneeze, the animal can urinate," he says, "If a human touches [it] and blows their nose or whatever — they've got it." Infection could also spread through eating undercooked meat. Why aren't the bats themselves affected by the viruses? It turns out that the answer to that question has to do with the bat's status as the world's only flying mammal. During flight, a bat's body temperature spikes to over 100 degrees Fahrenheit. Its heart rate can surge to more than 1,000 beats per minute. For most land mammals, these are signals that would trigger death. Bats have developed special immune systems to deal with the stress of flying. Their bodies make molecules that other mammals don't have, which help repair cell damage. And their systems don't overreact to infections, which keeps them from falling ill from the many viruses they carry (and also prevents conditions like diabetes and cancer). This shows that it's not always the virus itself but the body's response to the virus that can make us sick. even though bats may be the source of viruses that affect humans, they could also be the source of potential therapies if we study their immune systems. More studies on these species need to be done more now then ever.

[veryfireenemy]

कोविड-19

बात  बड़ी महत्वपूर्ण है। दुनिया है तो बीमारियां होंगी ही और वायरस भी होंगे । पहले भी चीन से  कुछ इंफेक्शन फैले हैं – 2002 में सार्स,  h7 n9 आदि।  पर   कोरोना या कोविड-19 सबसे भयंकर है।  यदि चमगादड़ों की समस्या इतनी गंभीर थी कि 2005 से उस पर शोध  चल रहे थे। इसके लिए बैटवुमैन जैसे शब्द चर्चे में थे। तब क्या समय रहते चेतावनी और रोकथाम या अन्य देशों से मदद लेने का प्रयास नहीं किया जाना चाहिए था? शायद…

[inkintheinternet]

Corona Chronicle 6: Herd Humans

By Arjuwan Lakkdawala

Ink in the Internet

Six months into the pandemic suddenly I realized the most curious thing. Where are the animals or even an animal from which this zoonotic virus has supposedly jumped to humans?

A bat? Bats? A pangolin? Pangolins? We had epidemics and pandemics in the not so distant past. Sadly animals by the thousands were culled. Birds, chickens, cows, camels, pigs, etc. They were culled because they were found to have the viruses which caused the epidemics and pandemics.

But in case of Covid-19, the most disastrous and contagious virus of the decade, which emerged from a wet animal market in Wuhan, China, only humans have been found carrying the virus. Not a single animal.

And if that isn’t strange to say the least. The virus can infect animals from a human host, but doesn’t jump from animals to humans.

Only human to human. There are theories that bats and pangolins could transmit Covid-19 to humans, and that that’s how it emerged from the wet market.

Yet there has been no Covid-19 outbreaks in bats or pangolins in China’s wet markets, despite the virus’ severe contagion.

Moreover as stated in a report on www.news-medical.com “Virus is uniquely adapted to infect humans” what this basically means is that other viruses mutated overtime to be able to infect humans.

Covid-19 could do it from day one. And had been dramatically mutating to overcome various immune systems of different populations around the world.

In a science fiction movie this would be like a virus biologically engineered to infect humans and evolve so no vaccine or antibody can be made. Because by the time doctors figure out the circulating strains of it, new strains are born.

A truly tenacious and feisty virus.

Speaking of bizarre things. The strangest comments regarding this virus came from none other than the President of the United States of America, President

Donald J. Trump for no obvious reason said that he was taking the drug Hydroxychloroquin as a prevention measure for the virus.

The drug has made controversy and confussion like no other during this pandemic. That’s because it was first reported to be among the runner up drugs expected to be good treatments for the virus, then suddenly it was reported that it increased the chances of dying in a lot of patients, and should only be taken with monitoring and prescription from doctors.

The monitoring for if instead of helping it make the patients’ condition worse, then doctors can intervene.

Assuming from these reports common sense deduces Hydroxychloroquin should not be made available as an over-the-counter treatment for the virus.

Earlier he had said something which seemed like he was telling people drinking disinfectants could kill the virus in the body.

Of course I hope I don’t have to remind readers that this would in fact not kill the virus but only the persons drinking the disinfectant.

Please ignore these comments. It is shocking that they come from a president.

However, the whole disinfectant thing made me research the recent study published in the journal Function (reported on www.healthline.com), which states that commercially available mouthwash could damage the virus and make it harmless while it is still in the throat.

Mouthwash are a type of disinfectant made for human oral hygiene. Never swallow mouthwash by the way.

This is not the time to get nostalgic but I have to narrate my experience with a virus in 2017.

A man had coughed next to me in an elevator and two weeks after that I had dry cough, which in another two weeks had from my throat infected my lungs.

I had high fever and coughed violently. I thought I was going to die. Had never been so ill. I was rushed and put on a ventilator and gradually made a full recovery.

It wasn’t Covid-19 but the similarities in the symptoms are awfully suspicious.

Like maybe it was some rogue strain of the coronaviruses.

I was among other medication prescribed mouthwash. And I realized that the virus was in my throat for about two weeks causing the dry cough. Before it infected my lungs and all but killed me, had it not been for the ventilator and the other medication.

So in my opinion mouthwash may or may not really prevent Covid-19 but it could be a worth it prevention measure. Oral hygiene is good whether you have the virus or not.

The third strangest thing I’ve heard during this pandemic is “herd immunity”

Britain very controversially was late on the lockdown, it was said by officials that they were following herd immunity. It was a bad decision and thousands died.

Did the world learn its lesson?

Apparently no, Covid-19 world-wide statistics are rising into the millions, and recoveries are slow.

Yet the whole world is on the verge of coming out of lockdown. As I said in a previous chronicle. It’s the failing economies which is forcing countries to stop the lockdown.

This is a very dangerous phase for the common man indeed.

Facemasks (preferably N-95), gloves, hand sanitizers, mouthwash, social distancing. Staying home as much as possible. Storing vital rations and medication in case of a sudden lockdown. This has to become the new normal for a long time to ensure the survival of the herd of humans that we have been reduced to.

As of 26-May-2020 when I finished writing this article below are the world-wide Covid-19 statistics according to the WorldoMeter site:

Cases: 5,622,939

Recoveries: 2,393,539

Deaths: 348,715

Copyright ©Arjuwan Lakkdawala 2020

[timmy30274]

#thedodo #bat #bats #disease #diseases #covid19 #corona #virus #viruses #coronavirus https://www.instagram.com/p/B_RIM8fhJAL/?igshid=1gtdjj9ffgy1q

[cristhianhijar]

I usually ignore these pictures, but I really liked this one.

[raven-reconciling]

I’m seeing a lot of “How X characters would respond to the Coronavirus” posts but I haven’t seen one from my all-time favorite show Community yet so here goes:

Jeff: Blows the whole thing off for the first several weeks and mocks everyone else for overreacting. Until the company that produces his favorite skin cream is forced to close down over virus concerns and in being forced to deal with his aging skin he’s confronted with his own mortality and suddenly becomes extremely hypochondriac about the whole thing.

Britta: Gives everyone a bunch of horribly inaccurate medical advice that she swears is from the CDC but she actually Britta’d the Google search and ended up on an antivaxxer conspiracy website.

Annie: Does extensive prep work for the shutdowns, including spreadsheets outlining peak items to purchase and where to get them. Begins rationing squares of toilet paper early on. Takes social distancing very seriously and insists that everyone carries sticks to maintain the appropriate 6 foot radius.

Shirley: Insists that this is the end of days and her friends must get right with the Lord before it’s too late. Thoughtfully sews personalized, monogramed face masks for the Study Group.

Pierce: Will definitely not stop calling it the China Virus and has in fact come up with several, even more offensive nicknames.

Abed:  Spends a lot of time trying to figure out which apocalypse movie the situation is most like. Frequently calls out which characters from these movies each of his friends is acting like at any given moment, much to their irritation. Also works on some sweet customized hazmat gear with Troy.

Troy: Is completely convinced the the virus is related to Corona beer and that in fact there must be corresponding viruses for each other major beer brand. He figures that’s why his Jehovah’s Witness parents didn’t want him drinking.

Chang: Insists that he’s immune from the virus because he has the “Changtedote” but he isn’t sharing with anybody. Says he’s been systematically mixing his Chinese blood with bat blood for years now for such a time as this.

Dean Pelton: Is really stressed about Greendale having to go to online learning because the school’s computer system hasn’t been updated since 1986 and they don’t even have Wi-Fi because the budget to update the system was spent printing “It’s Corona Time” t-shirts after a memo misunderstanding. He announces this at a large assembly before realizing that it’s violating social distance guidelines.

[corona-extra-newsletter]

3/15/20 corona extra: cracking open cold covid facts

Announcements & Thank Yous

“About This Newsletter” has been moved to the bottom so it’s easier to skip if you’ve seen the other ones.

Some institutions do not update on Sundays. I have included the date of everything that is in question. That is also why this update is early :)

Thank you to @hysterical-random-things for letting me know about the first death in NYC and where to find that news, to @nanook2000 for information and links about KY’s response, and to @akashicsage for all of the good deets on San Diego county. If you have reliable information from a good source that I don’t seem to have, please shoot me a message/ask/pigeon!

Places now included in the newsletter are: Utah, Oregon, Washington, the Netherlands, Minnesota, Kentucky, Georgia, Nebraska, the UK, and possibly some others I missed here but included in the newsletter. Please send an ask or a message if you would like a place included!

A word on mortality rates: they look very high in some places in the US right now because testing is limited to the sickest patients. People who have mild illness and are well enough to go or stay home may not have been tested until very recently when several states started mass testing/drive through testing. Testing is still limited in a lot of states, so this will be a rolling increase situation, I anticipate.

A word on case numbers: due to the aforementioned expansion of testing capacity in the US (thank fuck), case numbers are gonna grow in a really, really scary-looking way this week. This is not actually as scary as it seems, because it means we are catching more of the cases that would have gone unnoticed and have better information to help more people.

Just The Numbers

Case numbers

Total cases: 153,517 (10,982 new)

Total deaths: 5,735 (343 new)

China: 81,048 cases (27 new!!), 3204 deaths (10 new)

This gives us a mortality rate of ~3.95%

Excluding China: 72,469 cases (10,955 new), 2531 deaths (333 new)

143 countries/territories reporting cases, 9 are new today including:

Kazakhstan: 6 cases

Curacao: 2 cases

Namibia: 2 cases

Central African Republic: 1 case

Congo: 1 case

Equatorial Guinea: 1 case

Eswatini: 1 case

Mauritania: 1 case

Mayotte: 1 case

Italy is reporting over 20,000 cases with over 1400 deaths

Iran is reporting over 10,000 cases with over 700 deaths

South Korea, Spain, and Germany are reporting over 5,000 cases

SK reports 75 deaths

Spain reports 289 deaths

Germany reports 11 deaths

International/General News

Many places experiencing a worsening epidemic are following the lead of countries including South Korea and instituting drive-through testing and high-throughput testing. Some tests (like the ones being used in Vietnam) can have a result in as soon as an hour, enabling people to be quickly cleared or quarantined. (This is super cool science! Yay, science!)

Johns Hopkins University is putting on a webinar on Tuesday, 3/17. If you are interested, you can sign up/check it out here: https://www.jhsph.edu/events/2020/covid-19/

South Korea’s epidemic is currently being driven by a fringe religious group, which represents approximately 60% of all cases.

Italy’s health system is overwhelmed, which is likely why their case-fatality rate is so high. Doctors, nurses, respiratory techs, first responders, lab personnel, and everyone else involved in hospitals/health care are working their butts off and doing some frankly heroic shit to help people.

Singapore has instituted strict travel restrictions on visitors/transiting people from European countries, including Italy, France, Spain, and Germany; this is in addition to restrictions on visitors from Iran, China, and South Korea.

Some doctors from Washington state, USA (the ones seeing the most cases) are noticing that myocarditis (viral infection & inflammation of the heart) seems to be what kills patients, not the ARDS (acute respiratory distress syndrome) that requires ventilation. This is obviously in early stages and more research is ongoing.

The World Health Organization is setting up three hospitals with advanced respiratory care capabilities in Erbil, Baghdad, and Basra, Iraq.

Virology Corner

Today’s topic: where did SARS-CoV-2 come from?

SARS-CoV-2 is what’s known as a zoonotic virus. This means that it spread from animals to humans, and then gained the ability (through mutations) to pass from human to human.

We think that SARS-CoV-2 came from bats (Rhinopholus) or pangolins- which doesn’t mean we need to blame bats or pangolins for this, they’re innocent bystanders in the game of cat-and-mouse viruses and animals are constantly playing over evolutionary timescales. Also they’re pretty ding dang cute.

(Not to get much more depressing, but here goes, as humans encroach on more and more land and as climate change progresses, more zoonoses will affect humans. Sorry to be a mega-bummer.)

Question Tuesday

Today’s question comes from @adventurecalls! They ask (paraphrased because the ask got eaten): “If I do get sick, how do I know when it’s ok to go back to doing stuff?”

This is a really good question, and one that’s rapidly being worked out by public health people as we speak (whoa)!

In general, the thought is that once you’re totally recovered you’re not able to spread the virus, but there’s not concrete data on this. The best we have is this recent study in the Lancet (https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(20)30566-3/fulltext) which indicates that people who recover shed virus for 20 days from symptom onset, whereas those who die shed virus continuously until their death, a maximum course of 37 days.

I obviously can’t give individual medical advice, which this is not, but the guidance from the WHO is excellent in general, and I will keep readers posted when there’s more information.

If you have questions, ask them and they’ll appear here in the next issue of corona extra!

Regional News (if you want somewhere added just let me know. Don’t be shy!! I highly recommend you just skip to your area if you don’t wanna be overwhelmed.)

Canada: last updated 9:00 AM EST 3/15/20

Total cases: 249 confirmed (+5), 4 presumed (-1), 1 death (3/9/20, no change)

All current cases had symptoms starting between 1/17/20 and 3/9/20

One of these cases is the PM’s wife (mild case); the couple are in quarantine for 14 days now. This is not expected to affect Canada’s management, but is definitely a reminder that being a political leader does not grant one immunity to COVID-19.

12% of cases have required hospitalization

79% of cases are in travellers, and a further 8% in their close contacts

Affected provinces include (both confirmed and presumptive cases): BC (73, +0), Alberta (39, -2), Saskatchewan (2, +0), Manitoba (4, +0), Ontario (103, +2), Quebec (24, +3), Newfoundland and Labrador (1) New Brunswick (2, +0), and PEI (1).

Newly affected provinces include: Newfoundland and Labrador

4 cases in repatriated travellers

The Netherlands

I do not speak Dutch so please correct me if I’ve fucked something up royally

1135 confirmed cases, 20 deaths

176 new cases, 8 new deaths

Provinces (?) affected include: Drenthe (15), Flevoland (19), Friesland (10), Gelderland (100), Groningen (9), Limburg (129), North Brabant (446), North Holland (90), Overijssel (28), Utrecht (109), South Holland (110), and Zeeland (12).

I think this is all of them based on a quick Wikipedia investigation?

Interestingly they tested a bunch of people who work in a hospital and found a pretty high (4%) rate of asymptomatic infection. This seems like bad news (are these people spreading, etc) but it’s actually pretty good news because it means the mortality rate is lower than we think. I’ll update here as I find out more, which is hampered by my inability to speak Dutch.

New Zealand

8 confirmed cases, 2 probable cases

2 new cases, one of which was diagnosed in Australia

Both patients were on international flights and there is extensive contact tracing underway

2 patients have required hospitalization but both have been discharged

6700 people have completed self-isolation, 3015 people continue to be isolated

These people all deserve a medal, thank you for protecting your communities!

Golden Princess cruise berthed in Akaroa has one confirmed and two potential cases. The ship is quarantined now.

Norway 

1077 cases, 166 of which are new

I still don’t speak Norwegian so if I screwed up lemme know

Only 1 confirmed death, possibly one more to be confirmed 3/16 but only official numbers go here

Also possible that it’s been confirmed and I don’t know because I don’t speak Norwegian

287 cases are due to community transmission, 710 acquired outside of Norway, the rest are undetermined

Locations where people became infected include Austria (491), Italy (144), Switzerland (14), UK (12), Spain (9), France (8), USA (7), Iran (5), China (1), Hong Kong (1), other countries with more than 3 cases (80), and other countries with less than 3 cases (20).

Breakdown of cases by area: Agder (55, +3), Innlandet (72, +16), Møre og Romsdal (20, +4), Nordland (8, +0), Oslo (281, +59), Rogaland (127, +9), Troms og Finnmark (20, +4), Trøndelag (50, +4), Vestfold og Telemark (48, +9), Vestland (118, +9), and Viken (278, +47)

Good job Nordland! No new cases today! :D

United Kingdom in general: this is pretty rough because apparently the public health strategy coming from Boris is “herd immunity” aka let everyone get sick and then they’ll all be immune, since the only other way to get herd immunity is a vaccine that…..we don’t have yet. Boris does not understand how to medicine. 

Fuck you, Boris.

1372 total cases (+20%), 232 are new today

35 total deaths, 14 new today

England

1099 total cases

Affected NHS regions are as follows: London (407), South East (175), Midlands (94), North East and Yorkshire (91), North West (76), East of England (71), and South West (61).

Deaths are not being reported by the PHS but I will do my best to split these out in the next few editions using news reports etc

Scotland

153 cases total and 1 death

Affected health boards are as follows: Ayrshire and Arran (6), Borders (7), Fife (7), Forth Valley (10), Grampian (12), Greater Glasgow and Clyde (39), Highland (2), Lanarkshire (16), Lothian (28), Shetland (11), and Tayside (15).

I don’t know if this is all of the health  boards in Scotland but it sure is the ones that have confirmed covid19.

Wales

94 cases, 34 new

Welsh authorities are now recommending that anyone who develops a persistent cough and/or fever self-isolate, and only call 111 if they are unable to cope with their symptoms at home

Affected areas include: Blaenau Gwent County (3, +2), Bridgend County (1, +0), Caerphilly County (11, +4), Carmarthenshire County (7, +3), City & County of Swansea (18, +4), City of Cardiff (8, +3), Conwy County (1, +0), Flintshire County (1, +0), Isle of Anglesey (1, +0), Monmouthshire County (5, +1), Neath Port Talbot (11, +0), Newport City (5, +3), Pembrokeshire (2, +0), Powys County (5, +0), and Wrexham County (1, +0).

Newly affected areas include: Ceredigion County (1), Rhondda Cynon Taf County (2), Torfaen County (2), and Vale of Glamorgan (1).

Northern Ireland

45 cases, 11 new

This is all the data I have, sorry

This may actually be a thing that makes northern/southern Ireland cooperate, which is a small spark of hope in the raging dumpster fire that is this pandemic (I hyperbolize, but only slightly)

US in general: All this info is from the state & county health departments unless I say otherwise. The national response is a trash fire (but maybe hopefully improving this week??) CDC information is updated weekdays; total US cases are from 3/13 at 4 PM

1629 total cases, 41 deaths (2.5% mortality rate), with 46 states and DC reporting cases.

CDC is now recommending all in person gatherings with more than 50 people be canceled for the next 8 weeks. This sucks for me personally and probably a lot of you all too. Hang in there.

California: updated around 10 AM PST, 3/15/20

The state dept of health is not providing a ton of info right now, so all of this is coming from county health departments, which are doing really excellent work btw. Love local public health departments <3

My official take is that the higher level government orgs in the US are muzzled from above and therefore totally shitting the bed and the county-level public health officials are really stepping up to the plate

Total cases not including the ones at Miramar (discussed below): 363, with 4 total deaths

Affected counties include: Alameda (7), Calaveras (2), Contra Costa (29), Fresno (2), Humboldt (1 - recovered), Imperial (2), Los Angeles (53, +11), Madera (1), Marin (5), Orange (14), Placer (8), Riverside (10), Sacramento (29) San Benito (3 - 2 recovered), San Diego (8), San Francisco (28), San Joaquin (8), San Luis Obispo (1), San Mateo (32), Santa Clara (91), Santa Cruz (7), Shasta (1), Solano (6), Sonoma (4), Stanislaus (2), Tulare (2), Ventura (5), Yolo (2)

San Diego: My numbers are not gonna include the federal quarantine situations at Miramar (for repatriated people and the Diamond Princess passengers) because that’s what makes sense right now regarding community transmission. If this changes I will say so.

Unaffected counties include: Alpine, Amador, Butte, Colusa, Del Norte, El Dorado, Glenn, Inyo, Kern, Kings, Lake, Lassen, Mariposa, Mendocino, Merced, Modoc, Mono, Monterey, Napa, Nevada, Plumas, San Bernardino, Santa Barbara, Sierra, Siskiyou, Sutter, Tehama, Trinity, Tuolumne, Yuba

Counties with confirmed community transmission include: Los Angeles, Marin, Orange, Riverside, San Joaquin, Santa Clara, Sonoma

Newly affected counties include San Luis Obispo (3/14)

Colorado - last updated 3/14 at 3 PM

Colorado Springs Bridge Center is under an advisory for possible exposure

Drive-up testing is available now, in Denver and Lowry and possibly other places

1 death, 3/13/20, in El Paso County, a female in her 80s

Community spread has been confirmed

101 confirmed cases, 1 death

Affected counties include: Adams (6), Arapahoe (10), Denver (20), Douglas (4), Eagle (18), El Paso (3), Gunnison (6), Jefferson (9), Larimer (1), Mesa (1), Pitkin (2), Pueblo (1), Summit (2), Weld (3)

Out of state visitors who have tested positive are tallied separately. They are located in the following counties: Pitkin (9), Eagle (2), Routt (1), Denver (1), unknown (2 - wtf??)

Florida - last updated 145 AM EST 3/15/20

115 (+45) cases and 4 deaths (+0)

Florida has not yet confirmed community transmission but it’s almost certainly happening. I’m no longer separating counties with and without confirmed community transmission because of that.

Also, the numbers by county do not add up to the same total because locations are updated less frequently by FLDPH than the total number of cases.

Affected counties  include: Alachua (1, +0), Broward (36, +16), Charlotte (1, +0), Clay (3, +2), Collier (5, +2), Duval (4, +3), Hillsborough (4, +2), Lee (5, +1), Manatee (4, +0), Miami-Dade (13, +5), Nassau (1, +0) Okaloosa (1, +0), Orange (2, +1), Osceola (1), Palm Beach (5, +0), Pasco (2, +1) Pinellas (2, +0), Santa Rosa (1, +0), Sarasota (1, +0) Seminole (1, +0), Volusia (5, +1)

Newly affected counties include: Citrus (1), St. John’s (1)

Port Everglades is under an advisory due to several cases connected to a cruise company based there.

Georgia: last updated 3/15 at 11:43 AM

Y’ALL THEY MADE A HASHTAG. I am NOT making this up. It’s #covid19ga if you want to use that, I guess???

99 cases, 1 death

Affected counties include: Bartow (9), Charlton (1), Cherokee (6), Clayton (2), Clarke (2), Cobb (19), Coweta (2), Dekalb (10), Dougherty (6), Fayette (5), Floyd (4), Fulton (20), Gordon (2), Gwinnett (4), Henry (1), Lowndes (2), Lee (2), Newton (1), and Polk (1).

Illinois: last updated 3/14/20

64 confirmed cases, 16 new, with confirmed community spread

New cases: Chicago (7), Cook not Chicago (4), Kane (1), Lake (1)

195 pending persons under investigation

Affected counties include Cook, Kane, McHenry

Newly affected counties include: Woodford (1), Cumberland (1), St. Clair (2), DuPage (1, first long-term care facility case)

Iowa: last updated 3/14/20

Total cases: 18, 1 new 3/14

Affected counties include: Carroll (1), Dallas (1), Harrison (1), Johnson (14), and Pottawattamie (1)

Community spread confirmed on 3/14/2020

Kansas: last updated 3/14/20

8 confirmed cases

Affected counties include: Johnson (5), Wyandotte (1), Butler (1), Franklin (1)

Kentucky: last updated 3/14 at 6 pm local time

18 confirmed cases

2 new cases, both in Fayette County

One patient in Nelson County tested positive but left the hospital and refused to quarantine himself. Don’t be like this guy. Please. I’m expecting a lot more cases to pop up in Nelson county over the next couple weeks all connected to this one patient.

Apparently there’s now a bunch of cops sitting outside his house to make sure he stays there. Ffs.

Affected counties include: Harrison (6), Fayette (7), Jefferson (3 or 4, possible repeat test), Bourbon (1), Nelson (1), and Montgomery (1)

Governor is recommending hospitals stop elective procedures and childcare centers plan for closure by 3/17/20. Also put in place a bunch of important protections for people who don’t have insurance and stuff. Good job, KY!

First patient has fully recovered! Yay!

Louisiana: last updated 9:30 am 3/15/20

91 cases reported, 14 new

2 deaths, 1 new

Parishes affected:  Jefferson (12, +1), Lafourche (1, +0), Orleans (65, +12), St. Charles (2, +0), St. John the Baptist (1, +0), St. Tammany (4, +2), and Terrebonne (2, +1)

New parishes affected: Bossier (1), Caddo (1), St. Bernard (1)

Massachusetts: last updated 4 pm 3/14/20

138 cases (19 lab confirmed, 119 presumptive positives)

1 new lab confirmed case, 14 new presumptive positives

1083 people in quarantine

Affected counties include: Berkshire (9, 0% change), Essex (5, +150%), Middlesex (65, +8%), Norfolk (28, +16%), Suffolk (27, +3%), and Worcester (2, 0% change)

Newly affected counties include: Barnstable (1) and Bristol (1)

5 cases travel related, 104 (+10%) in one community transmission cluster, others unknown

11 hospitalized, 105 not hospitalized, the rest pending (22)

1 new hospitalization

Michigan: last updated 3/14/20 in the evening

33 cases, 8 new, 0 deaths

Affected counties include: Bay (1), Charlevoix (1), Ingham (1), Kent (3), Macomb (2), Monroe (1), Montcalm (1), Oakland (9), St. Clair (1), Wayne (8), and Washtenaw (4)

Likely community transmission

Minnesota: last updated 3/15

35 cases, community transmission confirmed

Affected counties include: Anoka, Carver, Dakota, Hennepin, Olmstead, Ramsey, Renville, Stearns, Waseca, Washington, and Wright

County numbers are not currently being provided by MN dept of health, just ranges. Hennepin and Ramsey counties have 6-20 cases each.

Hopefully they’ll pull an Ohio and help a girl out soon

Drive through testing available in Olivia

Nebraska: last updated 3/15

Community transmission confirmed: many locations in Douglas County are potential places where transmission has occurred; if you live or have traveled to Douglas County (Omaha), please check the Douglas County COVID-19 monitoring site.

There were also two exposures in Knox County on March 5, at basketball games at Lincoln Southwest HS and North Star HS.

17 cases, no deaths

Affected counties include: Cass (1), Douglas (15) and Knox (1)

New Jersey : last updated 3/14 at 2 pm

69 cases (+38%), 1 death (none new)

Affected counties include: Bergen (25, +47%), Burlington (3, no change), Camden (2, +1), Essex (7, +1), Hudson (5, +2), Middlesex (10, +6), Monmouth (8, +1), Morris (3, no change), Ocean (1, no change), Passaic (2, -1 apparently?), Somerset (1, no change), and Union (1, no change)

Newly affected counties include: Mercer (1)

I dread updating NJ just because the website sucks so bad

Thank you to the commenter who noted that the help line apparently rules and they’ve been advertising it heavily, that’s awesome public health work by NJ!

So that’s a bright spot, eh?

New York: last updated 3/14 at 8 PM

613 cases, 192 new, 1 new death

Affected counties include: Westchester (178, +12%), Nassau (79, +54%), Suffolk (41, +13), Rockland (12, +3), Ulster (5, +0), Dutchess (4, +1), Orange (6, +3), Saratoga (3), Albany (5, +3), Broom (1, +0), Delaware (1, +0), Herkimer (1, +0), Monroe (2, +1), and Schenectady (1, +0).

NYC has 269 cases (+75%) as of 3/15 at noon

Newly affected counties include: Erie (3), Tioga (1), and Tompkins (1)

Drive through testing in New Rochelle and Long Island

All public places are closed in New Rochelle through March 25.

Ohio: last updated 3/15 at 2 pm

36 confirmed cases, 10 new

350 people under investigation

Affected counties include: Belmont (2), Butler (6), Cuyahoga (14), Franklin (3), Lorain (2), Lucas (1), Medina (1), Stark (2), Summit (2), Trumbull (2), Tuscarawas (1)

THEY STARTED GIVING COUNTY BY COUNTY INFO, PRAISE THE LORD!!!

Oregon: last updated 3/14 at 11:00 AM

36 cases, 13 hospitalized at time of positive test, 1 death (3/14)

The following counties are affected: Clackamas (1), Deschutes (3), Douglas (1), Jackson (2), Klamath (1), Linn (9), Marion (2), Multnomah (1), Polk (1), Umatilla (2), and Washington (13).

Pennsylvania: last updated 3/15 at noon

Gritty is now loose and is singlehandedly responsible for all cases in Philadelphia, if you see the orange monster, RUN

63 total cases, 16 new today

No deaths, Gritty is thankfully failing in his mission to murder

Counties affected include: Allegheny (3, +1) Bucks (4, +1), Chester (2, +0), Cumberland (5, +2), Delaware (7, +1), Monroe (6, +3), Montgomery (24, +4), Northampton (1, +0), Philadelphia (6, +2), Pike (1, +0), Washington (1, +0), Wayne (1, +0)

Newly affected counties include: Lehigh (1) and Luzerne (1)

446 people under investigation pending test results

Rhode Island: last updated 3/13/20

~500 people in quarantine for close contact situations

57 pending people under investigation

20 confirmed cases, no deaths

Next expected update 3/16 in the AM

South Dakota: last updated 3/15

9 confirmed cases, no new cases since 3/14

6 pending cases under investigation

Affected counties include: Beadle (1), Bon Homme (1), Charles Mix (1), Davison (1), McCook (1), Minnehaha (3), and Pennington (1)

No community transmission

Texas: last updated 3/15

56 total cases, 5 new.

Highly likely that there has been community transmission, unconfirmed currently

Affected counties include: Bell (1, +0), Bexar (3, +2), Brazoria (2, +0), Collin (6, +1), Dallas (8, +0), El Paso (1, +0), Fort Bend (9, +0), Galveston (1, +0), Gregg (1, +0), Harris (10, +0), Hays (1, +0), Lavaca (1, +0), Montgomery (3, +0), Smith (4, +1), Tarrant (3, +0), and Travis (1, +0)

Newly affected counties include: Matagorda (1)

The Texas DPH has corrected a tabulation error that affected Gregg and Travis counties.

Utah: last updated 3/15

21 total cases, 14 cases in Utah residents

Affected health districts include: Davis County (3), Salt Lake county (14), Southwest Utah (1), Summit County (2), and Weber-Morgan (1)

The Utah Jazz managed to get more testing than the rest of the country for awhile there, so that’s great for them

Whoever does your graphic design, *greatjob* (the little virus instead of the UDPH logo is CHOICE)

Also, the website is super useful and readable, 10/10 good job Utah

First case of community spread identified on 3/14/20, in Summit County

Schools and universities are closed starting 3/16/20, Mormonism is closed until further notice, and skiing is canceled in Park City and Cottonwood Canyon for a minimum of a week. If you are interested in skiing in Utah, check Ski Utah for a list of closures.

Virginia: last updated 3/15

45 cases total, 4 new

Affected counties/cities include: Arlington (8, +1), Chesterfield (1, +0), Fairfax (10, +0) James City (8, +1), Loudoun (5, +0), Virginia Beach City (4, +1), Prince William (3, +1), Spotsylvania (1, +0), Prince Edward (1, +0), Hanover (1, +0), Harrisonburg City (1, +0), and Alexandria City (1, +0)

No newly affected areas today.

Washington: last updated 3/14 at 2:45 PM

Godspeed, y’all are having a real rough time right now. Yipes. Washington is really hard hit right now, especially King County. Look to Washington State and how they’re coping for a preview of how things are gonna go as the cases develop elsewhere.

642 total cases, 40 deaths (6.2% mortality)

Affected counties include: Clark (3), Columbia (1), Grant (2), Grays Harbor (1), Island (6), Jefferson (1), King (387), Kitsap (3), Kittitas (3), Pierce (26), Skagit (4), Snohomish (154), Spokane (3), Thurston (3), Whatcom (2), and Yakima (4).

39 cases are currently unassigned to a county. These are expected to resolve in the coming days, hopefully.

Deaths have occurred in the following counties: Grant (1), King (35), Snohomish (4),

Wisconsin: last updated 3/15 at 2 PM

33 total cases (6 new), 1 recovered, 0 deaths

Affected counties include: Dane (6, +0), Fond du Lac (11, +5), Milwaukee (7, +1), Pierce (1, +0), Racine (1, +0), Sheboygan (3, +0), Waukesha (3, +0), and Winnebago (1, +0)

Today’s Hot Tips

Make sure you have ibuprofen and tylenol/acetaminophen/APAP/paracetamol at home before you get sick. This isn’t just covid advice, this is life advice in general. (Obvs, ask your doctor about what’s safe to take if you have chronic health conditions etc but this is a general recommendation, not medical advice. As I said, life advice.)

As far as I know, ibuprofen and tylenol are ok, but research may change this. Current research indicates that steroids, which are used in other severe respiratory conditions, may make COVID-19 associated acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) worse. More on this later.

It still can’t hurt to have some tylenol around, though, ya know?

Hand Washing Song of the Day

If you hate singing happy birthday while you wash your hands, I certainly do, try Good as Hell by Lizzo instead!

Sing from “I do my hair toss” to “If he don’t love you anymore” at minimum (if you’re like me and can’t leave a lyric unfinished, go ahead and dry your hands while making your brain happy.) to follow CDC handwashing guidelines! Use soap and water for maximum virus-murdering.

Chill Cat  Otter Corner

https://gfycat.com/pastjovialalligatorgar-otter

Please watch these otters sproing and chase!

About this newsletter

I’m Emily, I’m a 4th year med student w/ a degree in molecular biology. I wrote this because I’m an infectious disease and epidemiology nerd and also all my friends have questions & anxiety. Hi internet!

All this info is sourced from regional & national public health organizations, plus the WHO. It’s as up to date as humanly possible. I’ve been beaming information about this outbreak directly into my brain 24/7 but I still miss stuff. Please let me know if I miss something!

Most public health departments stop updating their information around 4-5 PM local time on weekdays. That means that the earliest this will come out is around 6 PM Pacific time on weekdays going forward. On weekends things update more sporadically and earlier, so who knows what I’ll do then, but I’ll do my best.

Thank you to @marywhal for the excellent title!

For More Information

JHU COVID-19 data center: https://gisanddata.maps.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.html#/bda7594740fd40299423467b48e9ecf6

List of peer-reviewed publications: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/publications.html

WHO daily sitrep: https://www.who.int/docs/default-source/coronaviruse/situation-reports/20200315-sitrep-55-covid-19.pdf?sfvrsn=33daa5cb_6

WHO FAQ: https://www.who.int/news-room/q-a-detail/q-a-coronaviruses

CDC cases in the US (take w/ a grain of salt due to Political Garbage, as detailed above): https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/cases-in-us.html, this also has links to each state’s health dept which may or may not be more up to date than the CDC

[carmen-sandie-go]

COVID-19 : The past, the present and the future

11th of march 2020 - a day that will go down in history books marking the start of one of the deadliest pandemics in the history of mankind. COVID-19 : CO for corona, VI for virus, D for disease and 19 for when the outbreak was first identified. December 2019, Wuhan saw the occurrence of the first case of a highly infectious, often fatal respiratory virus. It proliferated faster, killing thousands and spreading all over the world.As of present day more than 168 million cases have been recorded along with about 3.51 million people losing their life to this disease.

WHAT IS COVID-19 ?

Contrary to popular opinion, coronavirus is not a new type of virus. Coronaviruses are a category of closely related RNA viruses that infect birds and mammals. In humans and birds, they cause upper-respiratory tract infections which may be of varying degree from minor to fatal. The earliest case of coronavirus infection dates back to North America in the late 1920s.

When an acute respiratory infection of domestic chickens emerged.This infection was characterised by breathlessness and gasping and high mortality rates. Human corona viruses were first identified in the 1940s and new coronaviruses have been discovered since then which includes the SARS-CoV-2 (virus that causes Covid-19) in 2019. Most human coronaviruses originate from bats. There are seven known human coronaviruses that cause respiratory illnesses. But COVID-19 is caused by a new virus that has not been observed in humans before.

BACKGROUND :

The exact origin of the virus to this day remains unknown. The first outbreak is believed to be in Wuhan, Hubei , China in late 2019. Most early cases are related to the people who consumed meat in the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in Wuhan. However it's possible that the spread had been going on long before this incident.

A lot of conspiracies surround this topic from people believing that this is a man made virus and leaked from a laboratory. However nothing concrete can be said as of now. America’s top infectious disease expert Dr.Anthony Fauci says that he is not convinced that the virus is natural. Many scientists have again called for an in depth investigation. American Intelligence agency has reasons to believe that The Wuhan Institute Of Virology, Chinese Academy of Sciences has some relations to the virus although there is no concrete proof as of present time.

HOW DOES THE VIRUS SPREAD : TRANSMISSION

Covid-19 is an air-borne, droplet infection that enters the body from the respiratory tract. While speaking, breathing, talking the infected person may release droplets that enter the atmosphere and can be breathed in by a non-infected person resulting in a successful transmission of the virus. The probability of transmission depends on the time of interaction, their relative proximity although researchers prove that infection can occur over long distances particularly indoors. Small airborne particles tend to stay in the environment for longer periods of time while larger droplets either fall on surfaces or stay suspended for a while. In poorly ventilated areas, the droplets stay in the sir for minutes or hours. In september 2020, it was established that on an average an infected person spreads the disease to one to three people. Covid-19 spreads in clusters hence “ super-spreader events” have a huge role in the transmission.

Surface transmission i.e. spread through touching contaminated surfaces is also a likely yet rare possibility. The virus is not known to spread from animal carriers, faeces, urine, breast milk, water etc.

ASYMPTOMATIC CARRIERS

In medicine, any person who tests positive for the disease but fails to show any symptoms is termed as an asymptomatic carrier. When someone gets infected with the virus, it takes about five days to even two weeks to produce symptoms varying from mild to dangerous ones.

Current research suggests that most of the transmission occurs from symptomatic people and not from asymptomatic people. However a vast majority of people are asymptomatic. The reason is yet unknown

WHAT ARE THE WAYS TO END THE PANDEMIC

The WHO is likely to declare the pandemic as over when the infection is contained and the transmission rates drop around the world.

The governments around have 3 main options : Race through it, Delay and vaccinate, or coordinate and crush.

Race through it : In this the global governments do little to nothing to contain the spread of the infection therefore exposing people to the virus.The results of this would be ghastly; millions of people with compromised immune systems will die around the world, health care systems will collapse. In a couple of months most of the people would have been infected and either survived or died. Around this point herd immunity will kick in resulting in the virus to fizzle out as it can no longer find new host bodies.

Delay and Vaccinate: In this the global governments give researchers time to study the virus to produce vaccines and effective ways of treating the infected. They employ methods like masking, planned lockdowns and contact tracing to reduce the spread of the virus. However the virus will spread slowly leading to hundreds of thousands of deaths. And in about a year or so many vaccines would have been developed and after vaccinating about 50-90% of the population the pandemic will end.

Coordinate and crush : The principle here is to starve the virus around the world but instead of each leader acting according to their own jurisdiction, everyone will coordinate and work together treating the world as a huge family. With a combination of social distancing, restricted travels, social distancing the pandemic could be ended with minimum life loss and in a considerably small amount of time.

The best way is to delay and vaccinate with as much global cooperation as possible. It is a tried and tested winner amongst the methods. It's slow, steady and reliable. Even if the herd immunity kicks in before the vaccination is done and the pandemic starts to fizzle away. It may resurface later and vaccination will protect people and from the situation ever escalating further.

WHAT IS A VACCINE ?

Vaccine is a biologically prepared typically containing an agent that resembles the pathogen.

The antigen is prepared from the weakened or the dead form of the disease-causing microorganism or its toxins or the surface proteins. The basic principle of it is that the vaccine works as an antigen stimulating an immune response leading to the formation of antibodies.

The body recognises the agent as a threat, destroys it and further recognises the agent and destroys any microorganism that associates with it in future.

HOW WILL THE VACCINE HELP END THE PANDEMIC ?

Vaccination is critical for reaching the herd immunity threshold which will help us go back to normal life.

Herd immunity or mass immunity is an indirect form of protection from an infectious disease produced when enough people become immune to the disease either through the mode of vaccinations or through getting infected.

This helps us disrupt the chain of transmission since the people who are immune to the disease are unlikely to transmit it further.Some of its effects are that it helps us protect those who can't get vaccinated due to underlying medical conditions or are unable to develop immunity.

Even help us protect our young ones who can't be administered a lot of vaccines.

Herd immunity acts as a method of creating evolutionary pressure and encourages viral evolution. If herd immunity is reached and can be retained for a long period of time, it would eventually lead to the eradication of the disease as a whole. For example- smallpox etc.

Keep hope all this shall pass too.

@influencedgenetics

[themedicalstate]

A Brief History of Human Coronaviruses

By Shawna Williams (The-Scientist). 

Top Image: MERS virus particles on the surface of an infected cell. FLICKR.COM, NIAID. Infographic by The-Scientist. 

Milder, cold-causing members of this pathogenic viral family long remained under the radar, although they aren’t entirely harmless.

On January 9 of this year, Chinese state media reported that a team of researchers led by Xu Jianguo had identified the pathogen behind a mysterious outbreak of pneumonia in Wuhan as a novel coronavirus. Although the virus was soon after named 2019-nCoV, and then renamed SARS-CoV-2, it remains commonly known simply as the coronavirus. While that moniker has been catapulted into the stratosphere of public attention, it’s somewhat misleading: Not only is it one of many coronaviruses out there, but you’ve almost certainly been infected with members of the family long before SARS-CoV-2’s emergence in late 2019.

Coronaviruses take their name from the distinctive spikes with rounded tips that decorate their surface, which reminded virologists of the appearance of the sun’s atmosphere, known as its corona. Various coronaviruses infect numerous species, but the first human coronaviruses weren’t discovered until the mid-1960s. “That was sort of the golden days, if you will, of virology, because at that time the technology became available to grow viruses in the laboratory, and to study viruses in the laboratory,” says University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center pediatrician Jeffrey Kahn, who studies respiratory viruses. But the two coronaviruses that were identified at the time, OC43 and 229E, didn’t elicit much research interest, says Kahn, who wrote a review on coronaviruses a few years after the SARS outbreak of 2003. “I don't believe there was a big effort to make vaccines against these because these were thought to be more of a nuisance than anything else.”

The viruses cause typical cold symptoms such as a sore throat, cough, and stuffy nose, and they seemed to be very common; one early study estimated that 3 percent of respiratory illnesses in a children’s home in Georgia over seven years in the 1960s had been caused by OC43, and a 1986 study of children and adults in northern Italy found that it was rare to come across a subject who did not have antibodies to that virus (an indicator of past infection).

Coronaviruses’ mild-mannered reputation changed with the SARS outbreak. Although related to OC43 and 229E, SARS-CoV was far deadlier, killing about 10 percent of people it infected—a total of 774 worldwide, according to the United Kingdom’s National Health Service. While it’s still unclear exactly where SARS-CoV came from, similar viruses were later found in bats, and some studies suggested the virus could have jumped to humans via an intermediary such as civets.

While SARS was a wake-up call that coronaviruses posed a greater risk to humans than had been thought, it’s unsurprising that a virus that’s newly spilled over to humans would be more deadly than its human-adapted cousins, says Rachel Roper, a virologist and immunologist at East Carolina University. “When a species is co-evolving with its pathogen . . . they tend to come to a detente, where the virus will be surviving in the population, and the population is surviving without that much illness,” she explains. “But when a virus jumps species, then you’ve got a real problem.”

In the wake of the SARS epidemic, some researchers went looking for other human coronaviruses—and found them. In 2004, researchers in the Netherlands reported they’d found a novel coronavirus, related to 229E, in a child with pneumonia and in four other people with respiratory disease. That virus came to be known as NL63, and Kahn and his colleagues found it at around the same time in hospitalized children in New Haven, Connecticut (Kahn worked at Yale University School of Medicine at the time).

Although first identified in people with severe infections, NL63 is, much like 229E and OC43, a widespread virus that causes colds in most people it infects. But there were hints that its effects could extend beyond the respiratory tract. In their 2005 paper on the newly-discovered virus, Kahn and his colleagues reported finding it in 8 of 11 patients they tested who had Kawasaki disease, an inflammation of the blood vessels that occurs primarily in young children. But most follow-up studies failed to find such an association.

“It could be that it was just chance,” Kahn says of his finding, or “there may be a signal there.” His 15-year-old study has acquired new salience in light of reports that COVID-19 is associated with Kawasaki-like symptoms in some children, but he cautions that this inflammatory syndrome has been defined slightly differently by different groups reporting on it, and isn’t identical to Kawasaki disease.

Close on the heels of NL63’s discovery came a report from Hong Kong on yet another common, cold-causing coronavirus, this one called HKU1. As with NL63, researchers in other parts of the world went looking for HKU1, finding it in Australia, France, and the United States, among other places.

The cold-causing coronaviruses each carry a similar array of symptoms, says Kahn, and it’s not clear how long any of them have been hosted by humans, or where they came from originally. As ubiquitous as they are, other basic questions about these viruses also remain open, such as whether infection with one of them confers lasting immunity. Studies reported in two recent preprints found that it’s not uncommon for a person to be infected with the same coronavirus twice. But Roper suspects that our bodies do learn to fend off coronaviruses they’ve encountered. “There are literally thousands of respiratory viruses, so probably every time you get a cold, you’re getting a new virus that you’ve never seen before,” she says. “Plus, they’re always mutating.”

Until the emergence of SARS-CoV-2, human coronaviruses that have made the news have been both far more deadly and far more contained than their cold-causing counterparts. No cases of SARS have been detected since 2004, and Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV), first found in a patient in Saudi Arabia in 2012, has caused fewer than 2,500 confirmed cases worldwide, according to the World Health Organization—but it kills about 35 percent of people with confirmed diagnoses. SARS-CoV-2, which, as its name suggests, is closely related to SARS-CoV, appears to be far more transmissible, and its mortality rate has so far proven difficult to nail down.