Hello ANS group -- Here is a reply from another of our readers saying the explanation I sent out earlier was wrong. I was thinking it was metaphorical, but apparently it wasn't even that. Just goes to show that there's lots of misinformation going around.
I apologize.
--Kim
See snopes:
https://www.snopes.com/news/2020/03/23/coronavirus-bigger-seasonal-flu/
You should pass this along to whoever you sent the original to.
On 3/23/20 3:35 PM, Michael Eager wrote:
> There are a few problems with this "explanation".
>
> First, there are not different kinds of DNA/RNA, with one kind
> recognized by humans and the other kind by other animals. There is only
> one kind. Coronaviruses (an RNA virus) infect many animals, including
> humans. Viruses encode proteins which attach to receptors on cell
> walls. Different animals have different receptors. A mutation
> (possibly in a snake or bat) resulted in a coronavirus which could
> attach to receptors on certain human cells, where previously it could not.
>
> Second, there are no "all human viruses" like seasonal flu. Seasonal
> flu infects birds (often ducks) and pigs. There are many variants and
> flu mutates frequently. Some versions infect humans, some don't.
> Occasionally, one variant, like H1N1 or H5N1 (also called bird flu) is
> transmitted to humans. Some can only be transmitted from animal to
> human, some have the ability to be transmitted between humans.
>
> Third, like other viruses, the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 which causes
> Covid-19 is continually mutating. A study in Wuhan claims to have
> identified two strains, S and L types. Epidemiologists say that the
> very slight mutations would not have a major impact on the virus, since
> it does not change the virus' proteins. Further, minor mutations (or
> even some major mutations) may have no affect on developing a vaccine,
> since these are based on getting the immune system to recognize foreign
> proteins.
>
> Fourth, there is no evidence that the SARS-CoV-2 initially could only be
> transmitted from animals to humans and later mutated to be able to
> transmit between humans. Determining whether community transmission was
> possible was the major issue in the early days of the outbreak.
>
> I cannot imagine an immunologist at Johns Hopkins saying that a mutating
> virus is scary. Or that it is slippery. No scientist would engage in
> fear-mongering or dissemination of mis-information like this.
>
> See:
> https://www.sciencenews.org/article/coronavirus-questions-covid19-symptoms-deaths-spread
>
> https://www.livescience.com/coronavirus-mutations.html
> https://www.sciencenews.org/article/coronavirus-genetic-fingerprints-are-used-to-rapidly-map-spread
>
>
> On 3/23/20 2:20 PM, Kim Cooper wrote:
>> Dear ANS group -- this was sent to me from one of our readers. He
>> mentions that it will mutate again -- I believe it has mutated to
>> attack younger people, which it is now doing a lot more than it did in
>> the beginning.
>> Keep safe,
>> --Kim
>>
>> ---------- Forwarded message ---------
>> From:
>> Date: Wed, Mar 18, 2020 at 2:03 PM
>> Subject: Fwd: Excellent Explanation
>> To: Joyce Patterson-Rogers <joysbob1@gmail.com
>> <mailto:joysbob1@gmail.com>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>> Begin forwarded message:
>>>
>>>
>>
>>> This a very, very excellent explanation. I'm passing this along.
>>>
>>> Take care and be well.
>>>
>>> Love,
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Here is a little more information on the virus that may help explain
>>> a few things that people don't understand. This is from an
>>> immunologist at Johns Hopkins University.
>>>
>>> 🧐🧐🧐
>>>
>>> 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 WHO 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) (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, thats 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 the 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 AF. 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.
>>>
>>> Factoid: Henry VIII stayed in his room and allowed no one near him,
>>> till the Black Plague passed...(honestly...I understand him so much
>>> better now). Just like us, he had no tools in his shed, except social
>>> isolation...
>>>
>>> And let me end by saying....right now it's hitting older folks
>>> harder... but this genome is so slippery...if it mutates again (and
>>> it will). Who is to say, what it will do next.
>>>
>>> Be smart folks... acting like you're unafraid is so not sexy right now.
>>>
>>> #flattenthecurve
>>> <https://www.facebook.com/hashtag/flattenthecurve?source=feed_text&epa=HASHTAG>.
>>> Stay home folks... and share this to those that just are not catching
>>> on. 🤓
>>>
>>
>
--
Michael Eager eager@eagercon.com
1960 Park Blvd., Palo Alto, CA 94306
---------- Forwarded message ---------
From:
Date: Mon, Mar 23, 2020 at 11:36 PM
Subject: Re: Fwd: Excellent Explanation
To: Kim Cooper <kimc0240@gmail.com>
From:
Date: Mon, Mar 23, 2020 at 11:36 PM
Subject: Re: Fwd: Excellent Explanation
To: Kim Cooper <kimc0240@gmail.com>
See snopes:
https://www.snopes.com/news/2020/03/23/coronavirus-bigger-seasonal-flu/
You should pass this along to whoever you sent the original to.
On 3/23/20 3:35 PM, Michael Eager wrote:
> There are a few problems with this "explanation".
>
> First, there are not different kinds of DNA/RNA, with one kind
> recognized by humans and the other kind by other animals. There is only
> one kind. Coronaviruses (an RNA virus) infect many animals, including
> humans. Viruses encode proteins which attach to receptors on cell
> walls. Different animals have different receptors. A mutation
> (possibly in a snake or bat) resulted in a coronavirus which could
> attach to receptors on certain human cells, where previously it could not.
>
> Second, there are no "all human viruses" like seasonal flu. Seasonal
> flu infects birds (often ducks) and pigs. There are many variants and
> flu mutates frequently. Some versions infect humans, some don't.
> Occasionally, one variant, like H1N1 or H5N1 (also called bird flu) is
> transmitted to humans. Some can only be transmitted from animal to
> human, some have the ability to be transmitted between humans.
>
> Third, like other viruses, the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 which causes
> Covid-19 is continually mutating. A study in Wuhan claims to have
> identified two strains, S and L types. Epidemiologists say that the
> very slight mutations would not have a major impact on the virus, since
> it does not change the virus' proteins. Further, minor mutations (or
> even some major mutations) may have no affect on developing a vaccine,
> since these are based on getting the immune system to recognize foreign
> proteins.
>
> Fourth, there is no evidence that the SARS-CoV-2 initially could only be
> transmitted from animals to humans and later mutated to be able to
> transmit between humans. Determining whether community transmission was
> possible was the major issue in the early days of the outbreak.
>
> I cannot imagine an immunologist at Johns Hopkins saying that a mutating
> virus is scary. Or that it is slippery. No scientist would engage in
> fear-mongering or dissemination of mis-information like this.
>
> See:
> https://www.sciencenews.org/article/coronavirus-questions-covid19-symptoms-deaths-spread
>
> https://www.livescience.com/coronavirus-mutations.html
> https://www.sciencenews.org/article/coronavirus-genetic-fingerprints-are-used-to-rapidly-map-spread
>
>
> On 3/23/20 2:20 PM, Kim Cooper wrote:
>> Dear ANS group -- this was sent to me from one of our readers. He
>> mentions that it will mutate again -- I believe it has mutated to
>> attack younger people, which it is now doing a lot more than it did in
>> the beginning.
>> Keep safe,
>> --Kim
>>
>> ---------- Forwarded message ---------
>> From:
>> Date: Wed, Mar 18, 2020 at 2:03 PM
>> Subject: Fwd: Excellent Explanation
>> To: Joyce Patterson-Rogers <joysbob1@gmail.com
>> <mailto:joysbob1@gmail.com>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>> Begin forwarded message:
>>>
>>>
>>
>>> This a very, very excellent explanation. I'm passing this along.
>>>
>>> Take care and be well.
>>>
>>> Love,
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Here is a little more information on the virus that may help explain
>>> a few things that people don't understand. This is from an
>>> immunologist at Johns Hopkins University.
>>>
>>> 🧐🧐🧐
>>>
>>> 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 WHO 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) (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, thats 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 the 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 AF. 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.
>>>
>>> Factoid: Henry VIII stayed in his room and allowed no one near him,
>>> till the Black Plague passed...(honestly...I understand him so much
>>> better now). Just like us, he had no tools in his shed, except social
>>> isolation...
>>>
>>> And let me end by saying....right now it's hitting older folks
>>> harder... but this genome is so slippery...if it mutates again (and
>>> it will). Who is to say, what it will do next.
>>>
>>> Be smart folks... acting like you're unafraid is so not sexy right now.
>>>
>>> #flattenthecurve
>>> <https://www.facebook.com/hashtag/flattenthecurve?source=feed_text&epa=HASHTAG>.
>>> Stay home folks... and share this to those that just are not catching
>>> on. 🤓
>>>
>>
>
--
Michael Eager eager@eagercon.com
1960 Park Blvd., Palo Alto, CA 94306
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