The biology of coronavirus COVID-19 - including research and treatments

I believe, but can't for the life of me remember the source, that the so called Indian variant was affecting young teens i.e. 15 and younger.

Very worrying.

 

Not long into the first lockdown the New Scientist had an article about the preparations needed for the next epidemic. For a host of reasons, from jungle meat to intensive farming, to population density and worldwide fast travel, we are meeting novel viruses at a rate never before seen.

A lab leak is such a simple answer, take more care it will never happen again and covid certainly has nothing to do with exploiting the environment for profit.

It is so convenient I am dubious and will need a lot of persuading.

 

The lab story looks cast iron to me. I had always assumed it would be the lab since it is too much of a coincidence that a bat coronavirus epidemic should start in the one town in the world with a huge lab working on bat corona viruses. The DNA trail looks incontrovertible. Presumably un til now it has all been a bit too embarrassing.

The most embarrassing thing of course is that 'British Science' is heavily implicated in the process. Very clever of British Scientists to make a vaccine (even if it was not quite as safe or effective as others) and due credit but not so clever of British Scientists to support a virus playgroup in China that very likely had dodgy safety standards.

It may not look too good for WHO either.

 

I just did a web search as I am thinking the same.

There were lots of links to popular newspaper articles saying that the Indian variant is more readily caught by children, but I did not find any more serious sources.

 

I think this (rather long) article does a good job of looking at both sides and concluding that the lab was the most likely source.
https://thebulletin.org/2021/05/the-origin-of-covid-did-people-or-nature-open-pandoras-box-at-wuhan/

 

The Pentagon gave $39 MILLION to Dr. Peter Daszak’s EcoHealth Alliance - the charity that funded coronavirus research at the Wuhan lab accused of being the source of the outbreak, federal data reveals
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/ar...neled-39million-charity-funded-Wuhan-lab.html

PS: the three Wuhan Institute of Virology employees getting sick in November 2019 seems compatible with claims of the virus circulating undetected in Europe already in December.

 

The sad implication of the lab leak is that the people involved almost certainly knew it had happened before everyone else but said nothing, and in doing so made everything much worse. The Chinese state's response was also initially one of censorship.

 

What about the claims that the virus was active in northern Italy already in October 2019, has anybody here looked into their credibility? How well would that fit with the lab leak theory?

Antibodies were found in the blood of people in a control group of a lung cancer study at the cancer institute INT in Milan, according to this article: https://www.svd.se/italienskt-virusspar-vacker-plotsligt-intresse

 

Well, I've been wondering more or less since the beginning whether that nasty "bug" that was doing the rounds in the UK in December 2019 was actually Covid. It certainly wiped me out more than usual. I guess we may never know for certain.

 

They were probably fans of that cave’s unique architecture and interior design.

 

For any unpleasant phenomena, we generally look for a cause that reinforces whatever we already believe.

 

Milan region and Wuhan have extensive connections and frequent business travel between them. something that breaks out in Wuhan and Lombardy at about the same time is not at all unlikely.

Now, between the two of them, which has extensive act interactions of bats, the never found intermediate host, and humans? Perhaps a lab which Collects bat virus and also has mice with humanized lung cells, automated cell culture experiment stations, and the ability to conduct both serial passage and direct genetic manipulation experiments? Oddly enough, there happens to be just such a lab in Wuhan. That can only be an entirely unrelated coincidence.

That I am aware of, Lombardy has no such facility nor industry. Wuhan has both open and secret installations, as the military does bio research there.

 

The evidence for that is rather weak, serological tests like those used in the cited study lack the requisite specificity.

 

I've wondered that too, a really nasty virus swept round our village here in the southwest and everyone said at the time what an unusual and nasty virus it was. It took many healthy people weeks/months to fully get over it.

I never usually get a cough and chest issues but that time I did, luckily not deep into my chest but very congested and difficult to clear. That aspect came on about ten days into it and my sense of taste/smell was shot for several months, way before anyone was mentioning that as a symptom of covid.

 

Keeping this here because N=2.


Brainstem neuropathology in two cases of COVID-19: SARS-CoV-2 trafficking between brain and lung

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00415-021-10604-8


Methods
We assessed neuropathological features in two patients who died of COVID-19 and in two COVID-19 negative patients as controls. Neuronal damage and corpora amylacea (CA) numbers /mm2 were histopathologically assessed. Other features studied were the immunohistochemical expression of the SARS-CoV-2 nucleoprotein (NP) and the Iba-1 antigen for glial activation.

Results
Autopsies showed normal gross brainstem anatomy. Histopathological examination demonstrated increased neuronal and CA damage in Covid-19 patients’ medulla oblongata. Immunohistochemistry disclosed SARS-CoV-2 NP in brainstem neurons and glial cells, and in cranial nerves. Glial elements also exhibited a widespread increase in Iba-1 expression. Sars-Co-V2 was immunohistochemically detected in the vagus nerve fibers.

Discussion
Neuropathologic evidence showing SARS-CoV-2 in the brainstem and medullary damage in the area of respiratory centers strongly suggests that the pathophysiology of COVID-19-related respiratory failure includes a neurogenic component. Sars-Co-V2 detection in the vagus nerve, argues for viral trafficking between brainstem and lung.

 

It is worth remembering that several lines of spread at the beginning petered out. We had at least one Chinese case that didn't spread. There was the French chalet where they all had it but in the end it didn't spread. If the virus escaped from the Wuhan lab, as I am pretty sure it did, then it is perfectly possible that it had leaked a few times before and fizzled out because it did not get into a super-spreading population - which in practice may mean hospital wards and old people's homes.

Maybe it pitched up in Italy more than once because there is link between northern Italy and Wuhan and people would do the trip by long haul flight - which would be a really brilliant way to spread the virus to enough people to get a local outbreak at the arrival point.

I don't think the antibody data are strong evidence but that doesn't mean they may not be relevant.

 

Don't know if this has been posted anywhere but there was a very interesting BBC/CNN Horizon special documentary on the development of the vaccines last night: available on iplayer
https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000x2tf/ad/horizon-2021-1-horizon-special-the-vaccine

@Hilda Bastian was I seeing things or did I spot your name in the credits?

 

Article on antibody protection - highlights need for vaccination

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...ay-not-offer-long-term-protection-study-finds

 

The US government announced an investment of $3.2B to develop antiviral pills for Covid.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/17/health/covid-pill-antiviral.html