Originally I intended for my next several essays to treat the historical controversial battle between science and religion but changed my mind to return to the subject of viruses for obvious reasons.  Let’s review some basic viral facts.  First of all, viruses are composed of just two kinds of organic molecules, an outer protein coat and an inner nucleic acid core comprised of DNA, or RNA, but not both. The nucleic acid component may be single stranded or double stranded DNA or RNA. From essay IX we learned the following facts about both DNA and RNA: the  basic unit of structure of nucleic acids is a nucleotide. A nucleotide of DNA consists of a sugar (deoxyribose), a phosphate group, and a nitrogenous base (adenine, guanine, cytosine, or thymine). The DNA molecule is a long double stranded molecule that is twisted into a double helix. There are many kinds of RNA but they all differ from DNA in that the sugar is ribose (with one more oxygen atom); uracil is substituted for thymine,

As you can see from the diagram below a virus is not necessarily considered a living “thing” It can only live in or on another living organism (There are viruses that inhabit virtually every living being).  They can reproduce only when they are inside another living cell making them an obligate parasite. Unlike any living organism, they can be crystalized, put on a shelf almost indefinitely, then rehydrated and can proceed to invade a cell, reproduce, and carry on all known life processes.

Now let’s look at an image of coronavirus

Some viruses are very specific as to not only the host species but also in some cases the specific cell type, tissue, or organ. A virus attaches to a specific receptor site on the host cell membrane through attachment proteins in the capsid or via glycoproteins embedded in the viral envelope. For example hepatitis viruses attack the liver The specificity of this interaction determines the host—and the cells within the host—that can be infected by a particular virus. (Lumen Learning)

According to MLB.com, yes that’s major league baseball, a novel coronavirus is a new coronavirus that has not been previously identified… On February 11, 2020, the World Health Organization announced an official name for the disease that is causing the 2019 novel coronavirus outbreak, abbreviated as COVID-19. In COVID-19, ‘CO’ stands for ‘corona,’ ‘VI’ for ‘virus,’ and ‘D’ for disease. There are many types of human coronaviruses including some that commonly cause mild upper-respiratory tract illnesses Originally, the following symptoms were listed as most common:

• Fever
• Fatigue
• Cough
• Shortness of breath

Since then many others have been added.  I’m not going to spend much time here going over all the symptoms since most everyone is aware of them. 

The most common symptoms of COVID-19 are fever, tiredness, and dry cough. Some patients may have aches and pains, nasal congestion, runny nose, sore throat or diarrhea… Some people become infected but don’t develop any symptoms and don’t feel unwell. Most people (about 80%) recover from the disease without needing special treatment. Around 1 out of every 6 people who gets COVID-19 becomes seriously ill and develops difficulty breathing. Older people, and those with underlying medical problems like high blood pressure, heart problems or diabetes, are more likely to develop serious illness. People with fever, cough and difficulty breathing should seek medical attention.

People can catch COVID-19 from others who have the virus. The disease can spread from person to person through small droplets from the nose or mouth which are spread when a person with COVID-19 coughs or exhales. These droplets land on objects and surfaces around the person. Other people then catch COVID-19 by touching these objects or surfaces, then touching their eyes, nose or mouth. People can also catch COVID-19 if they breathe in droplets from a person with COVID-19 who coughs out or exhales droplets.  Older persons and persons with pre-existing medical conditions (such as high blood pressure, heart disease, lung disease, cancer or diabetes) appear to develop serious illness more often than others. (WHO)

Early on I was hearing from many people that COVID-19 was “just like the flu” in symptoms and severity.  COVIC -19 isn’t the flu; it’s worse, it is deadlier, far more contagious, and is much more disruptive to our health care system.  It’s hard to get an accurate figure on yearly averages here in America and other countries for flu occurrences and deaths for several reasons.  For one, many people never see a doctor or the illness may be misdiagnosed.  Even the CDC often counts related deaths as flu.  Just in one article I read 37,000 deaths last year were due to influenza with a normal average of 27,000-70,000.  That’s quite a staggering range.  In the same article I saw a range of 30,000-100,000 deaths annually.

Biologically COVID-19 takes from 5-14 days to develop symptoms compared to 2 days for the flu thereby giving it more time to spread through greater social interaction.  And then too, as of now and the near future, unlike seasonal influenza, there is no vaccine.  Initially it was thought that coronavirus was spread by droplets released from sneezing, exhaling, and coughing but now other methods are potentially being added to the list.  United States data on influenza deaths are misleading.  The CDC acknowledges a difference between flu death and flu associated death, yet the terms are used interchangeably.  David Rosenthal, director of Harvard University Health Services said “People don’t necessarily die of the flu virus. . ..  What they die of is a secondary pneumonia”.

The 25.000 to 69,000  number that Trump originally cited doesn’t represent counted flu deaths annually but are estimates the CDC uses by applying complex equations.  Surprised?  Fooled me too.  But in all fairness COVID-19 deaths totals are probably misleading too.  Rumor has it that hospitals receive federal funds for each coronavirus death at their facility and so the natural tendency is to attribute unconfirmed deaths to COVID-19 especially when they are swamped. 

So, for the  the doubters out there who either contest that this is no worse than the flu or that it’s a big hoax, please don’t say that to the thousands of families who have lost loved ones and think about questions like:

• When was the last time the flu closed schools around the globe?
• When was the flu last responsible for closing businesses by the millions around the world?
• When was the last time the flu interrupted sporting events including the Olympics?
• When did the flu cause stock markets to fall to depression levels?
• When was the last time the flu caused unemployment levels and food lines, not seen since the 1930’s? And finally
• When in any of our lives were we “required” to wear masks in public places?

                    Effect of COVID-19 on the Environment

Like most everyone else, I liked the gas prices reminiscent of the late sixties and early seventies.  But when did I have reason to burn that cheap gas? Air pollution dropped significantly because of fewer vehicles on the road and fewer factories in operation.  Here ae a few sample of cleaner air:

• Nitrogen dioxide pollution in Northeastern US down 30%
• Rome air pollution down 49% from a year ago

Compared to previous five years, air pollution was down

• 46% in Paris
• 35% in Bengal, India
• 38% in Sydney
• 29% in Los ‘Angeles
• 20% in Rio de Janeiro

Add those to the list above of differences between COVID 9 and the flu.

However, scientists caution that this is only a temporary decrease and levels will rise again as some sense of normalcy returns.

There is also a downside to this.  Plastic shopping bags that many people previously recycled are now being included in trash or carelessly ending up on beaches, in waterways, etc.  The same is true for disinfectant bottles.

One final thought to ponder.  I am becoming more and more convinced that coronavirus-COVID-19, whatever you want to call it is the product of artificial selection, not the result of natural selection! If so what a shame!

References

Center for Disease Control, COVID-219, 2020                                                                        

Major League Baseball, What are coronavirus and COVID-19? May 10, 2020

Statista (German internet company), What are coronaviruses ?  Feb. 20, 2020

Thanos, K., Founder and CEO, Viruses Lumen Learning, 2012

World Health Organization  COVID-19, March 14, 2020