So some very bad news from my virologist friend. They don’t think seasonal immunity for this will last beyond 6 months.
I’m genuinely distraught to hear it, but it may be so.
Edit: the brighter news is that it may mutate to become far less virulent, but that’s a supposition from him, not an observed phenomenon.
This is normal. Recall the early discussion of mutation rate in the other thread–this happens to many viruses specifically because they don’t effectively proofread their RNA copying. So far none of these are demonstrably more lethal or infectious than the original strain.
It is, though, one potentiality problematic factor for vaccine development (and one reason many viruses still lack vaccines). You need a stable site for antibody recognition.
That’s no good. But then it’s par for the course for the coronavirus class of germs
Aye, makes sense. It’s not a pile of good news tbh. Even if it was expected.
Thanks goodness. I was worried that these lockdowns wouldn’t happen again(just kidding…I always fully expected them to continue happening).
Best news of the year so far.
I’m sure this has been covered somewhere, but I seem to recall reading that the common cold is a coronavirus.
Correct?
If so (or not, I suppose), isn’t it also true that the common cold was lethal as fuck to Native Americans when they first encountered it, absent any sort of herd exposure?
Correct?
If my recollection is correct, and even if it wasn’t, might this virus eventually have to run its course over time, as the common cold has in every population it has been exposed to?
If so, might the 'rona become another common cold at some point?
This x2
I’m no expert, but my mate’s current hope is that it becomes far less virulent. It so, then I imagine it will be.
There’s also the prospect of decent retro viral drugs soon, which means this becomes far more manageable.
Nah. The Virus.
Agree to disagree. I prefer The ‘Rona.
When you are the G.O.A.T., no specific identification is necessary.
That’s fair.
Why not bring Kingsevil back?
Yes, quite. So is the flu
Not as far as I am aware. The primary deadly diseases were smallpox, measles, diptheria, typhoid, etc. I’m sure that the common cold was passed on to them as well, but I don’t think there is any evidence it was ever deadly to them. They had too many other things that were deadly and more likely to kill.
It’s possible that it becomes the common cold part 2, but I don’t think it is likely at all. One of the primary reasons I’m pissed at China for originating it and being dicks about transparency is that if you can stop a virus from community spread you can eliminate it completely from the population and relegate it to animal carriers with periodic but strictly regional outbreaks. If you can’t do that (meaning you have to resort to mitigation strategies), you have to try to come up with a vaccine or treatment. Those are both infinitely trickier, not to mention more expensive in both lives and money.
As can be seen from things like the regular flu, once they go to a certain point they are permanent. It takes an extreme act of will and finances to eradicate a global disease (see the decades long effort it has taken to kill polio and measles in most of the world).
Also, as you’ve no doubt noticed along with everyone else here, the flu doesn’t have a true vaccine in the sense we think about say, polio vaccines. It’s once a year and then it’s also largely a gamble. This is normal for coronaviruses due to a number of factors, and one obvious reason why dickheads in the CCP should have gotten over trying to save face and instead been transparent.
Finally, on a purely personal note/soapbox moment…one reason I’m upset with how the US has handled this is that we blew an opportunity to economically get ahead of everyone dealing with a huge pandemic. Imagine for instance if we had taken a serious testing and surveillance approach right out of the gate–we wouldn’t be shut down, or at least not near to the degree we are currently. Also, as other countries get shut down and we keep trucking, we get a large reprieve. /Soapbox
Long-windedly, this is unlikely to ever be a common cold, at least in the lifespan of anyone reading this. The flu still kills way more people than the common cold (as far as I know, nobody has died from the common cold) every year, and current estimates put this as 2x as contagious, as well as 40x as deadly as the flu. No, we don’t know the denominator in case numbers yet, but most signs point to this being more serious regardless–flu doesn’t cause neurological symptoms, attack the heart, scar the lungs, or potentially attack the testes or intestines. Typically even when it is deadly the flu causes it via pneumonia only.
So the answer is that I’m possibly correct because you can’t prove the common cold didn’t kill them instead of some other disease. Just as I thought. Thank you for this, I was hoping for an expert to come along and tell me I was right the entire time.
Now, off to facebook…
Well said.
Lol! Well played.
Meanwhile, Chinese people outside China have been using the term “you’ve been Wuhaned!” if you catch the virus.
ROFL. That’s pure gold. Where’s push’s gold bars?
This made me curious, so I checked just a bit. I have zero medical background, if that needs saying.
I have always assumed that what we call “the common cold” is a specific virus but, if I’m reading these correctly, “the common cold” seems to be just the name given to a list of symptoms. Is that correct?