THIS IS A MUST READ FOR
EVERYONE.....
I hope this “plain language message” can help us understand this
COVID-19 a bit better.
“Feeling
confused as to why Coronavirus is a bigger deal than Seasonal flu?
Here it
is in a nutshell. I hope this helps. Feel free to share this to others who
don’t understand...It has to do with RNA sequencing...i.e. genetics."
Seasonal
flu is an “all human virus”. The DNA/RNA chains that make up the virus are
recognized by the human immune system. This means that your body has some
immunity to it before it comes around each year... you get immunity two
ways...through exposure to a virus, or by getting a flu shot.
Novel
viruses, come from animals.... the W.H.O. tracks novel viruses in animals,
(sometimes for years watching for mutations). Usually these viruses only
transfer from animal to animal (pigs in the case of H1N1 and birds in the case
of the Spanish flu). But once, one of these animal viruses mutates, and starts
to transfer from animals to humans... then it’s a problem, Why? Because we have
no natural or acquired immunity…the RNA sequencing of the genes inside the
virus isn’t human, and the human immune system doesn’t recognize it so, we
can’t fight it off.
Now...sometimes,
the mutation only allows transfer from animal to human, for years it’s only
transmission is from an infected animal to a human before it finally mutates so
that it can now transfer human to human...once that happens…we have a new
contagion phase. And depending on the fashion of this new mutation, that’s what
decides how contagious, or how deadly it’s gonna be. H1N1 was deadly....but it did not mutate in a
way that was as deadly as the Spanish flu. It’s RNA was slower to mutate and it
attacked its host differently, too. Fast forward…
Now,
here comes this Coronavirus... it
existed in animals only, for nobody knows how long...but one day, at an animal
market, in Wuhan China, in December 2019, it mutated and made the jump from
animal to people. At first, only animals could give it to a person...But here
is the scary part...in just TWO WEEKS it mutated again and gained the ability
to jump from human to human. Scientists call this quick ability,
“slippery”. This Coronavirus, not
being in any form a “human” virus (whereas we would all have some natural or
acquired immunity), took off like a rocket. And this was because, Humans have
no known immunity...doctors have no known medicines for it.
And it
just so happens that this particular mutated animal virus, changed itself in
such a way that it causes great damage to human lungs. That’s why Coronavirus is different from
seasonal flu, or H1N1, or any other type of influenza...this one is slippery as
hell. And it’s a lung eater...And, it’s already mutated AGAIN, so that we now
have two strains to deal with, strain S, and strain L...which makes it twice as
hard to develop a vaccine.
We
really have no tools in our shed, with this. History has shown that fast and
immediate closings of public places has helped in the past pandemics.
Philadelphia and Baltimore were reluctant to close events in 1918 and they were
the hardest hit in the US during the Spanish Flu.
And let
me end by saying...right now it’s hitting older folks harder...but this genome
is so slippery...if it mutates again…who is to say, what it will do
next. Be smart folks...acting
like you’re unafraid is so not sexy right now: #flattenthecurve.
Stay
home folks... and share this to those that just are not catching on.”
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