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Original poster

What made Covid different?

63 replies

LEMtheoriginal · 02/04/2021 23:37

Corona viruses have been around for years. Weve probably all had colds caused by a coronavirus. Then there was SARs and Mers and people started getting twitchy. I remember when friends got stuck in Canada due to SARs.

How did Covid get so virulent? Random mutation that made a horribly virulent and dangerous strain or has the virus evolved, incorporating several mutations leading to increased virulence?

Does that mean future coronaviruses will continue to be as dangerous or will it be the same as prr-covid?

Also, what about the next flu or coronavirus? Will the world react differently to new viruses? Im not sure i can cope with livingin fear like we have for last year on a permanent basis.

Also, how has the flu season been this year? Is there a number for infections/deaths? More or less than usual?

OP posts:
DianaT1969 · 02/04/2021 23:42

What has your research told you? I'm assuming you have googled some of these questions.

MimiPigeon · 02/04/2021 23:43

I understand there have been fewer flu cases because people have been hand washing and wearing masks etc.

The problem with Covid is that it’s new. Nobody has had it. Nobody is immune. So it’s possible for everyone to get sick at once. The current generation of kids will grow up with immunity to Covid because they’ve had it as kids when it wasn’t as dangerous. Same as chicken pox - we’ve all had it as kids so when we grow up it isn’t a threat. But if chicken pox appeared now for the first time and nobody had ever had it before, it would be dangerous the same as Covid.

Original poster
LEMtheoriginal · 03/04/2021 00:04

No i haven't actually, i just wondered the questions popped into my head. Interedtrd in peoples thoughts.

OP posts:
AntiSocialDistancer · 03/04/2021 00:05

Would also like to understand this!

DianaT1969 · 03/04/2021 00:07

www.google.com/amp/s/www.bbc.co.uk/news/amp/health-54648684
BBC article - Why is Covid such a threat.

stayathomer · 03/04/2021 00:08

They did a review in irish hospitals a few years ago on simple hand washing and hygiene and there were killings over the results. I heard a doctor on the radio saying flu was at an all time low this year but it would have been because of hygiene, higher uptake of vaccine and also social distancing. I wonder why covid all the time too

Original poster
LEMtheoriginal · 03/04/2021 00:09

Thats just it though mimi, how did it get to be so different? It wouldn't have been a single mutation, it feels more evolutionary if that makes sense.

OP posts:
Tealightsandd · 03/04/2021 00:12

Then there was SARs
The official name of Covid-19 is SARS-CoV-2.

Tealightsandd · 03/04/2021 00:16

@LEMtheoriginal

Thats just it though mimi, how did it get to be so different? It wouldn't have been a single mutation, it feels more evolutionary if that makes sense.
It was a more or less inevitable consequence of industrialised farming, poor (or no) standards of animal welfare, and over globalisation.
Original poster
LEMtheoriginal · 03/04/2021 00:17

DianaT that's an interesting article that does kind of answer my question. It doesn't answer me how the mutations took place to be so very different, seemingly very quickly. It leads to the sort oflate at night irrational worries that the common cold is going to do for us!

OP posts:
Lockdownbear · 03/04/2021 00:21

@Tealightsandd

Then there was SARs The official name of Covid-19 is SARS-CoV-2.
I thought it was SARS-CoV-2 was the virus that leads to Covid 19, not every who has SARS-CoV-2 has Covid 19 symptoms.
bestusername · 03/04/2021 00:22

This reply has been deleted

Message deleted by MNHQ. Here's a link to our Talk Guidelines.

ColourfulElmerElephant · 03/04/2021 00:24

Flu is predicted to be worse this winter because we won’t have added to out immunity over the last year due to social distancing.

MedSchoolRat · 03/04/2021 00:25
  1. Wrong to group all coronaviruses together like this, it's a broad group, they vary in severity. Covid is a helluva lot nicer to get than MERS, and much harder to get. Some coronaviruses only affect certain animals... viruses are weird things.
  1. There was (is?) a theory that one of the 4 common cold coronaviruses is very much like covid. That when this other cv first appeared it was very deadly BUT only to frail elderly... which the world didn't have many of at the time (in about 1810). And people died of respiratory infections all the time then anyway. Germ theory was in its infancy anyway. So as a result, nobody noticed there was a new scary (scary to old people) coronavirus.

It could be that covid in 50 yrs will be exactly like that. A 'common cold' virus humans all get exposed to so often by the age of 30 that they have cast iron life-long immunity so it is never able to be deadly when humans reach the high risk age (70+). Maybe.

Tealightsandd · 03/04/2021 00:27

Sorry yes you're right @Lockdownbear

SofiaMichelle · 03/04/2021 00:29

The current generation of kids will grow up with immunity to Covid because they’ve had it as kids when it wasn’t as dangerous. Same as chicken pox - we’ve all had it as kids so when we grow up it isn’t a threat.

This is nonsense.

QuietBatPeople1 · 03/04/2021 00:59

I’ve wondered about this as well op

eaglejulesk · 03/04/2021 01:07

The flu disappeared so they said. Although flu deaths were obviously renamed Covid as were all deaths for other reasons.

Some of us live in countries with very few covid deaths - and yet flu all but disappeared here also, so how do you explain that?

MimiPigeon · 03/04/2021 01:10

This is nonsense
It is not nonsense. If chickenpox appeared now as a new virus it would be a deadly and terrifying plague. The only reason it isn’t is because we’ve all had it as kids (it’s less serious for kids) and built up immunity. In the same way, Covid is a threat because it’s new and nobody has any immunity. But it’s less serious for kids and catching it will give them at least some immunity so it’ll be less of a threat to them when they’re older.

Lockdownbear · 03/04/2021 10:40

@Tealightsandd

Sorry yes you're right *@Lockdownbear*
Thanks
Lockdownbear · 03/04/2021 10:47

In answer to the original question. Covid is new nobody has any immunity to it.

Think about what happens when explorers have tried to make contact with remote tribes people. Tribes have been wiped out by viruses that they have no immunity to that have been introduced by explorers.
It is no longer considered ethical to try to make contract with uncontacted tribes for fear or killing them.

A 3/4 years ago two tribesmen in Brazil took tools belonging to explorers. A few days later they were back coughing and spluttering.

SofiaMichelle · 03/04/2021 11:44

@MimiPigeon

This is nonsense It is not nonsense. If chickenpox appeared now as a new virus it would be a deadly and terrifying plague. The only reason it isn’t is because we’ve all had it as kids (it’s less serious for kids) and built up immunity. In the same way, Covid is a threat because it’s new and nobody has any immunity. But it’s less serious for kids and catching it will give them at least some immunity so it’ll be less of a threat to them when they’re older.
Chickenpox (Varicella) is not a coronavirus. It does not behave in the same way as a coronavirus. That Chickenpox kills hardly anyone (~20 per year in the uk) is not because we're immune to it as adults due to having it as children - not every child gets it - it's because the fatality rate is vanishingly small for any age group.

The fatality rate is absolutely nothing like that of SARS-CoV-2 (the coronavirus causing Covid) regardless of what age the infection occurs.

There is also no evidence that contracting Covid as a child will provide any long-lasting immunity at all, and certainly not into adulthood.

The common cold is a coronavirus. Do we become immune to the common cold for life due to having it as children? No. Because that's not how coronaviruses work.

yeOldeTrout · 03/04/2021 12:10

If chickenpox hit a care home full of elderly where no one at all was immune from it, it could do a lot of harm.

SomeKindOfFloppyWeirdo · 03/04/2021 12:34

@bestusername

The flu disappeared so they said. Although flu deaths were obviously renamed Covid as were all deaths for other reasons. See office for national statistics 5 year death rate uk.
Sorry, just to be clear - “all deaths for other reasons” were renamed covid? All of them? Grin Sure they were Hmm Is it too much to ask now for the conspiracy nuts to even try to make a bit of sense?

When ds was ill, he was tested for covid, influenza A, glandular fever and strep throat. So none of that “so they said” nonsense needed.

bestusername · 04/04/2021 00:35

Tested with the PCR test which is not fit for the purpose of testing for Covid as said by the creater if the test.

Have you check ONS stats for fatalities over 5 years. It’s not hard so I’m sure you can manage that and try make sense of that.

Also just today on BBC people were told that the figures are not accurate as people had Covid on their death certificates despite not having been tested Hmm