topic Re: The JOB OF COVID19 in Community Chat

The JOB OF COVID19

ciao_bella — Sun, 03 May 2020 12:35:14 GMT

My sister is a microbiologist who worked 28 years at Bristol Meyers Squibb before retiring a few years ago. We were talking on the phone the other day about the virus and she put it in layman's terms that make you think about how this virus works. I will do my best to paraphrase what she said.

She said the job of a virus, such as COVID19, is to effectively infect and spread to as many other hosts as possible while trying to overtake and possibly kill its host. The virus has to invade a cell in a body through mucus membrane, eyes, nose, inhaling, etc but once it's in, it will replicate, reproduce and spread and keep doing so very quickly. Each time it replicates, it produces more and more of the virus within the body/cells.

She said our own immune system will kick in to fight and kill most viruses and most often do, but some viruses, like COVID19, evolve much faster than the immune system which gives the virus a big advantage. What also sets this virus apart from others is that it affects people in many different ways or not at all.

With some states lifting restrictions, please be mindful of this insidious virus and take any and all precautions until a vaccine can be found.

Re: The JOB OF COVID19

millieshops — Fri, 01 May 2020 22:17:57 GMT

@ciao_bellawhat a nasty job that virus has! Great way to think of it.

That line about how it tries to replicate itself hit home for me because I just finished reading a post from another scientist in which he talked about the danger of repeated exposures - as in, the more times you're out of your own safe zone (probably your home), the more hours you're standing less than 6 feet from another person, the more times you touch your face (when you're out of your safe zone), the more likelier you are to get enough exposure to become ill.

Now I really know I'm not ready to resume normal in the early days we're finally released. I can already do lots, all without adding major risk to me or anyone else. And with mask, gloves, and lots of wipes or sanitizer, I can take care of what I need to do even if it's not everything I want to do!

The virus has a job, but I do also - we're just tugging on opposite ends of the rope!

Re: The JOB OF COVID19

Alison Wonderland — Fri, 01 May 2020 22:27:13 GMT

@ciao_bella wrote:
My sister is a microbiologist who worked 28 years at Bristol Meyers Squibb before retiring a few years ago. We were talking on the phone the other day about the virus and she put it in layman's terms that make you think about how this virus works. I will do my best to paraphrase what she said.

She said the job of a virus, such as COVID19, SARS, etc is to kill its host. The virus has to invade a cell in a body through mucus membrane, eyes, nose, inhaling, etc but once it's in, it will replicate, reproduce and spread and keep doing so very quickly. Each time it replicates, it produces more and more of the virus within the body/cells.

She said our own immune system will kick in to fight and kill most viruses and most often do, but some viruses, like COVID19, evolve much faster than the immune system which gives the virus a big advantage. What also sets this virus apart from others is that it affects people in many different ways or not at all.

With some states lifting restrictions, please be mindful of this insidious virus and take any and all precautions until a vaccine can be found.

I think killing the host is the side hustle job. Its first job is to spread to as many hosts as possible. The fact that this one does so without making the host sick first means it's very effective at that job. Thankfully not as much as the Measles, but more so than influenza.

Re: The JOB OF COVID19

Spacrazy — Fri, 01 May 2020 22:51:48 GMT

@ciao_bella

thank you, that is a helpful explanation. I have done well with stay-at-home mandate but I am probably going to try getting out some this week end but thanks to your explanation I will NOT complain or neglect PPE.

Re: The JOB OF COVID19

Jersey Born — Fri, 01 May 2020 23:03:07 GMT

I disagree with your sister. The job of a virus is not to kill its host, but to replicate and spread to others. When viruses are too virulent and kill people, i.e. their host, they cannot spread, replicate, and thrive. Many viruses evolve to become less deadly over time as a result.

A bio-weapon, on the other hand, would be specificially designed to kill a multitude of people. Is your sister of the opinion that SARS, and SARS-CoV2 are bio-weapons?

Regardless, this particular coronavirus most certainly acts differently and more aggressively than previous, typically occuring coronaviruses (not including the outliers, MERS and SARS, of course). A brave ICU doctor in Brooklyn stated that using ventilators on high pressure settings was disastrous and deadly for Covid-19 patients he personally treated. Considering the high mortality rate for people on ventilators in NY, which is near 90%, I believe he is likely correct.

I think that due to the severe bodily havoc that some Covid-19 patients experience causing their cells to become oxygen deprived, and their blood to form clots, that the best hope is an antiviral drug that can knock it out and prevent replication. That's what the hydroxychloroquine, azithromycin and zinc combination did. I wish this could get to the patients prior to their hospitalization with breathing difficulties, when treatment might come too late for them. Another favorable combination has been coritisone (an anti-inflammatory), high dose Vitamin C, and a blood thinner. Now, doctors in Alabama are conducting a study to investigate the use of Nitric Oxide as a Covid-19 treatment. We need something to treat the illness, because too many are not surviving due to the lack of treatment, or due to receiving available treatment options far too late. If off-label use of certain drugs is found to work, those drugs should be used.

Re: The JOB OF COVID19

LilMadi — Fri, 01 May 2020 23:11:47 GMT

When you put it in those terms, it's actually quite GROSS isn't it? Ick!

It reminds me of the movie, "Alien(s)."

Re: The JOB OF COVID19

ciao_bella — Fri, 01 May 2020 23:49:00 GMT

As a few posters pointed out, while it is true that this virus's method of operation is to infect and spread quickly to as many people as possible, it also will do its best to kill the host.

Re: The JOB OF COVID19

JumpTheRope — Sat, 02 May 2020 06:53:59 GMT

Please don’t scold me anyone, but on my own a few weeks ago,

I added Vit. D and C to my supplements routine, as well as

a baby aspirin (every few days).

I am very healthy, an avid exerciser, a “once a month meat eater”,

and take about a dozen supplements daily. Usually in the lower

concentrations.

After learning about blood clotting concerns w this virus, I then added the baby aspirin.

For ME, I don’t feel I’m harming myself. I’m aware I’m not a doctor, but

Ive lived this long with not ONE “prior condition” or in-patient hospitalization.

This virus has turned out to be a hostile enemy to every part of our body,

not only the lungs, but kidneys, clots and strokes.

Yet some are untouched even though *Positive.

Its such an unsettling feeling.

We are living through history and because of technology there will be a full,

complete and informative “look back” at what living through it was like.

I don’t believe I will be alive to go through another Pandemic.....but I fear for my children and grandchildren .........where these types of crisis may be relatively common and routine.

Maybe in 5-10 years (god willing) I’ll be ready to read “The Book” (or watch the PBS/Discovery Documentary) about this period.

Re: The JOB OF COVID19

beach-mom — Sat, 02 May 2020 07:42:51 GMT

We also have to remember that it is invisible. If you find yourself in a space where two minutes before someone who is positive coughed or sneezed and touched something you're about to touch, you could be in trouble.

A while back, one victim's husband said his wife had been staying home and decided one day to do four quick errands, including picking up a few groceries. The man behind her in line sneezed. That was it, and THAT'S what I pay attention to. HE may have been fine, but she paid the ultimate price for standing in that line.

Even though most are still complying with the current stay-at-home orders, I see people getting lax. The spring weather and sunshine are drawing people out, without social distancing.

I'm staying home. This is a new world.

Re: The JOB OF COVID19

Drythe — Sat, 02 May 2020 23:19:09 GMT

The goal of every successful organism (including humans) is to:

Find a host that meets it's needs, and Reproduce.

Killing the host is a side effect, not a goal,

Because killing the host means nothing left to live on.

Fevers, Coughs, Vomiting, etc, are our bodies ways of trying to

rid themselves of invading viruses.

Yep, this virus is smart, it doesn't kill everyone it attacks, but it still reproduces more virus cells.

GAACK!

Re: The JOB OF COVID19

noodleann — Sun, 03 May 2020 00:59:29 GMT

@beach-mom wrote:
We also have to remember that it is invisible. If you find yourself in a space where two minutes before someone who is positive coughed or sneezed and touched something you're about to touch, you could be in trouble.

A while back, one victim's husband said his wife had been staying home and decided one day to do four quick errands, including picking up a few groceries. The man behind her in line sneezed. That was it, and THAT'S what I pay attention to. HE may have been fine, but she paid the ultimate price for standing in that line.

Even though most are still complying with the current stay-at-home orders, I see people getting lax. The spring weather and sunshine are drawing people out, without social distancing.

I'm staying home. This is a new world.

A friend in the heart of Manhattan supports your observation. He says he's amazed; every time he passes the window and looks out, he sees tons of people mingling, most without masks or with masks pulled down to their necks, talking to each other. It's as if, with the warmer weather and the messaging from states that are relaxing their rules, people whose rules haven't changed at all are going ahead with relaxing anyway. BTW, this is new, something he's seen only the past couple of days. He's very concerned.

Re: The JOB OF COVID19

germanshepherdlove — Sun, 03 May 2020 13:14:33 GMT

What concerns me as I read more information about masks, breathing in and out onto a moist mask is not healthy nor is continually breathing in our own carbon dioxide from exhaling into one. I do wear a mask but I think it's better to just keep staying home even when businesses open....until we have a bonafide cure or similar facsimile.

Also, I don't understand covid-19's connection to hiv. That is unprecedented in a corona virus, right? Maybe that's why this is attacking more than respiratory. I could handle venturing outside when businesses open if it was only respiratory but not everything else patients are experiencing... even after they are sent home.

Re: The JOB OF COVID19

suzyQ3 — Sun, 03 May 2020 18:09:29 GMT

@germanshepherdlove wrote:
What concerns me as I read more information about masks, breathing in and out onto a moist mask is not healthy nor is continually breathing in our own carbon dioxide from exhaling into one. I do wear a mask but I think it's better to just keep staying home even when businesses open....until we have a bonafide cure or similar facsimile.

Also, I don't understand covid-19's connection to hiv. That is unprecedented in a corona virus, right? Maybe that's why this is attacking more than respiratory. I could handle venturing outside when businesses open if it was only respiratory but not everything else patients are experiencing... even after they are sent home.

@germanshepherdlove, what is the connection?

Re: The JOB OF COVID19

Porcelain — Sun, 03 May 2020 19:11:03 GMT

First, the title of this makes me think of Job from the Old Testament. I was thinking gee, did some poor guy get COVID-19 13 times and then get leprosy on top of it and then have a house fall on him?

Second, to me, the job of COVID-19 has been to show people's true colors. A dead person is still dead, a sick person is still sick. Lying about it is pointless. And when you can't lie and you can't spin and you can't blame, either you work on fixing the problem or you don't. I'm seeing a lot of rhetoric from a wide variety of people (not just the ones I already disliked) for what it really is. Some people are grounded in what they say and they really mean it, for good or bad. Other people, you can see how their words always float around in a conceptual layer and never quite land on reality.

Re: The JOB OF COVID19

germanshepherdlove — Sun, 03 May 2020 19:34:49 GMT

@suzyQ3 wrote:
@germanshepherdlove wrote:
What concerns me as I read more information about masks, breathing in and out onto a moist mask is not healthy nor is continually breathing in our own carbon dioxide from exhaling into one. I do wear a mask but I think it's better to just keep staying home even when businesses open....until we have a bonafide cure or similar facsimile.

Also, I don't understand covid-19's connection to hiv. That is unprecedented in a corona virus, right? Maybe that's why this is attacking more than respiratory. I could handle venturing outside when businesses open if it was only respiratory but not everything else patients are experiencing... even after they are sent home.
@germanshepherdlove, what is the connection?

I don't know for sure but something that even the experts Dr Fauci and Dr Birx alluded to early on as that is their area of expertise. Something about a segment found in the sequencing of this virus not found before in a corona virus. @suzyQ3

Re: The JOB OF COVID19

suzyQ3 — Sun, 03 May 2020 21:00:39 GMT

@germanshepherdlove wrote:
@suzyQ3 wrote:
@germanshepherdlove wrote:
What concerns me as I read more information about masks, breathing in and out onto a moist mask is not healthy nor is continually breathing in our own carbon dioxide from exhaling into one. I do wear a mask but I think it's better to just keep staying home even when businesses open....until we have a bonafide cure or similar facsimile.

Also, I don't understand covid-19's connection to hiv. That is unprecedented in a corona virus, right? Maybe that's why this is attacking more than respiratory. I could handle venturing outside when businesses open if it was only respiratory but not everything else patients are experiencing... even after they are sent home.
@germanshepherdlove, what is the connection?
I don't know for sure but something that even the experts Dr Fauci and Dr Birx alluded to early on as that is their area of expertise. Something about a segment found in the sequencing of this virus not found before in a corona virus.  @suzyQ3

@germanshepherdlove, I'm skeptical about any connection to HIV other than both created so much misery. If you do have any sources, though, I would take a look.

Re: The JOB OF COVID19

shoesnbags — Sun, 03 May 2020 21:37:12 GMT

@germanshepherdlove wrote:
What concerns me as I read more information about masks, breathing in and out onto a moist mask is not healthy nor is continually breathing in our own carbon dioxide from exhaling into one. I do wear a mask but I think it's better to just keep staying home even when businesses open....until we have a bonafide cure or similar facsimile.

Also, I don't understand covid-19's connection to hiv. That is unprecedented in a corona virus, right? Maybe that's why this is attacking more than respiratory. I could handle venturing outside when businesses open if it was only respiratory but not everything else patients are experiencing... even after they are sent home.

@germanshepherdlove

Could you maybe have misunderstood something that you heard or read? I can’t find anything online connecting COVID-19 to HIV.

If I’ve missed something here, I apologize. But please give your source.

Re: The JOB OF COVID19

beach-mom — Mon, 04 May 2020 05:27:59 GMT

@germanshepherdlove , @suzyQ3 , and @suzyQ3 - I think the HIV "connection" is the expert doctors' connection to that disease. That may be what is confusing. I don't think this pandemic has anything to do with HIV, other than the fact that HIV patients might be immunocompromised. Another similarity might be that both viruses wiped out large groups of people.

Dr. Fauci was the expert face of HIV/AIDS back in the 80's and was the doctor we saw on our TV's all of the time. He was and is the director of NIH and is one of the first to research HIV/AIDS. Dr. Birx was an active duty military doctor at the time specializing in immunology. Her interest was HIV/AIDS and vaccine research. They have worked together for almost 40 years, starting with their work on HIV/AIDS, and Dr. Birx thinks of Dr. Fauci as her mentor.

Re: The JOB OF COVID19

germanshepherdlove — Mon, 04 May 2020 05:45:12 GMT

@shoesnbags @suzyQ3 @beach-mom

"This HIV/AIDS/ specialist explains its similarties and differences to Covid-19" Forbes Magazine 04/22/20

Re: The JOB OF COVID19

germanshepherdlove — Mon, 04 May 2020 05:48:55 GMT

@shoesnbags @suzyQ3 @beach-mom

"Coronavirus could attack immune system like HIV by targeting protective cells, warn scientists"

Author: Stephen Chen

12, Apr, 2020