What made Covid different?

[LEMtheoriginal]

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?

Well, your first point isn’t true at all. From the FullFact site:

There is absolutely no evidence that the inventor of the PCR process said this.

This doesn’t mean he thought PCR testing didn’t work at all, but that there are limitations in detecting the specific levels of a virus from a sample using PCR testing.

fullfact.org/online/pcr-test-mullis/

Not to mention that he couldn’t possibly have the test was not fit for the purpose of testing covid, as he died in 2019.

It’s not hard to actually double check the bullshit you read on Facebook. I’m sure you can manage that

*that should read - Couldn’t possibly have said that the test was not fit for the purpose of testing for covid, as he died in 2019.

To be honest, it stings a little that you’ve claimed a dead man said the pcr test didn’t work, and have insinuated that all deaths in the uk were restated as covid, yet have told me that looking up stats/info isn’t hard I don’t think I’m the one struggling here!

The argument that the flu was not prevalent due to covid measures, whilst covid was so prevalent because all those covidiots were having parties, is the most egregious doublethink ever. I could come up with a better iron-man argument, but people don't bother actually thinking this through, just repeating bollock spouted.

The argument that the flu was not prevalent due to covid measures, whilst covid was so prevalent because all those covidiots were having parties, is the most egregious doublethink ever.

It is one of the main drivers behind flu infections being so low though. Covid was so prevalent because it's so infectious, more so than flu. In addition to this, the flu jab uptake was higher than previous years, and people were less likely to access health services for flu treatment so some cases probably went unreported.

Covid is* so prevalent

@eaglejulesk

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?

Lockdown and social distancing ? Lack of travellers from overseas bringing it with them ?

@GraduallyWatermelon

The argument that the flu was not prevalent due to covid measures, whilst covid was so prevalent because all those covidiots were having parties, is the most egregious doublethink ever.

It is one of the main drivers behind flu infections being so low though. Covid was so prevalent because it's so infectious, more so than flu. In addition to this, the flu jab uptake was higher than previous years, and people were less likely to access health services for flu treatment so some cases probably went unreported.

I'm sure I read somewhere that COVID is a virus that somehow prevents other viruses like the cold and flu getting in, I'll see if I can find a link.

I was wrong, it's t'other way round

This thread highlights how misinformation spreads so fast. People so certain of themselves but factually incorrect. I get why this happens it’s been so common during the pandemic. Unless you are a professional who works in medicine please take 5 minutes to check facts before posting. Misinformation can be really harmful.

It was a more or less inevitable consequence of industrialised farming, poor (or no) standards of animal welfare, and over globalisation

Exactly right.

What made Covid-19 different to SARS and MERS is that for a lot of people it was very mild. So they went out. And by doing so infected other people. SARS and MERS were a lot more serious, so far far less super-spreading events.

There's been hardly any Flu this winter (you can track that on the PHE reports). Also hardly any RSV. But a whole ton of Rhinovirus in Sept.

"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 a popular theory amongst doctors.

SARS-Cov-2 has nowhere near the mortality rate to an individual as MERS or SARS. Circa 70% of SARS-CoV-2 cases are believed to be asymptomatic.

Chicken pox carries a greatly increased risk in hospitalisation when contracted as an adult due to enhanced risk of pneumonia. It would really affect elderly if encountered for the first time.

Circa 70% of SARS-CoV-2 cases are believed to be asymptomatic.

@yoyo1234 Do you have current evidence to back this up? My understanding was that previous estimates have been revised to 17-20%

www.bmj.com/content/371/bmj.m4851

Sorry, was using previous BMJ report.

One of the issues may be that as we know more symptoms so more may now be classed as symptomatic eg from your article saying the % has been revised "Studies estimating this proportion are limited by heterogeneity in case definitions, incomplete symptom assessment, and inadequate retrospective and prospective follow-up of symptoms"

Arguably the new symptoms may not be as worrying as the initially listed symptoms.

It was a more or less inevitable consequence of industrialised farming, poor (or no) standards of animal welfare, and over globalisation.

And how do you explain the emergence of measles in the 12th century? Or the Black Death in the 14th century? Or sweating sickness in the 16th century? Or the Spanish Flu in the 20th century?

There has constantly been diseases jumping species barriers throughout history. The mutations that cause this happen randomly. We now have the molecular tools to monitor the spread of diseases but as long as people and animals live in close quarters there is the opportunity for diseases to jump between hosts.

"There has constantly been diseases jumping species barriers throughout history. The mutations that cause this happen randomly. We now have the molecular tools to monitor the spread of diseases but as long as people and animals live in close quarters there is the opportunity for diseases to jump between hosts."

People will bring animals in larger numbers in closer proximity than would naturally occur. A pandemic normally occurs when a new variant is created with input from different species eg for influenza there are avian, swine and human variants most commonly involved in creating a new pandemic strain . The pandemic is due to a new strain that no hosts have built up immunity to (then it would be classed an endemic strain).

SARS-CoV-2 spreads rapidly, frequently can have symptoms hard to scan for to prevent spread (eg detecting lack of smell in an airport setting), has a low mortality rate ( and then it is weeks after initial infection, with worst symptoms and hospitalisation weeks after initial incubation), as a new pandemic strain there is not much community protection.

The most ideal pathogen would have no/very low mortality but high morbidity.

SARS-CoV-2 phylogenetic tree I believe links it to pangolin and bat origin.

@yoyo1234

SARS-CoV-2 phylogenetic tree I believe links it to pangolin and bat origin.

There is also a link to mink, have you seen the number of mink that have been culled in various parts of Europe?

There is a theory that the coronavirus infected people in the fur trade, including in Italy and in factories in Wuhan.

Will look into it🙂. Currently on maternity leave so a bit behind on current research.

I’m not on Facebook. I research things for myself and don’t rely on the first link that comes up when I google something.

Try researching something yourself and use your own critical thinking skills to decide what it means.

Coronavirus are not new. Watch some some interviews with Kary Mullins about PCR and see for yourself.

Presumably its the shape of the spike protein that makes it different? In that it makes it more contagious and also its effect on damaging people's internal organs? I know someone who was really athletic and fit, caught a fairly mild dose but then developed a really bad kidney infection in both kidneys (fortunately responded to antibiotics)when they have never had anything like that before.

I also worry about how many people will succumb to flu next winter, due to the loss of immunity that we have acquired as a result of all this social distancing.

I can't find Kary Mullins, can you provide a link? If you mean Kary Mellis then I think you need to find the original video and use your comprehension skills when watching it as what he says has a different meaning in context to your implications.