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    COVID-19 and the Virus that Shook the World
    COVID-19 and the Virus that Shook the World
    COVID-19 and the Virus that Shook the World
    Ebook122 pages1 hour

    COVID-19 and the Virus that Shook the World

    By Miriam Calleja

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    About this ebook

    Taking an informative, science-based look at the coronavirus pandemic, COVID-19 and the Virus that Shook the World examines the virus and its far-reaching effects on societies all over the globe. This book is a compelling and valuable resource for anybody who wants to learn more ab

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherOppian
    Release dateMay 18, 2020
    ISBN9789518771299
    COVID-19 and the Virus that Shook the World

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      Book preview

      COVID-19 and the Virus that Shook the World - Miriam Calleja

      COVID-19 and the Virus that Shook the World

      COVID-19 and the Virus that Shook the World

      Miriam Calleja

      Oppian

      Published by Oppian Press

      Helsinki, Finland

      © Miriam Calleja 2020

      All rights reserved

      ISBN 978-951-877-129-9

      Contents

      Introduction to viruses

      How zoonosis happens?

      Is the new coronavirus one of many to come?

      How do coronaviruses spread?

      How does COVID-19 make you ill?

      How can we protect ourselves from the virus?

      Who is most prone?

      Pandemic preparedness

      Social issues of self-isolation

      Previous epidemics

      Unheeded warnings from experts

      What are we feeling during self-isolation?

      Future outlook - when will we have a vaccine against COVID-19?

      Is there a connection between the vaccine for tuberculosis and COVID-19 deaths?

      Crowdsourcing in the fight against COVID-19

      Racism and pandemics

      What will a post-pandemic world be like?

      Have China and other countries manipulated their COVID-19 data?

      When will things return to normal?

      The second wave

      Possible treatments and ongoing clinical trials

      The danger of fake news

      Sources

      About the Author

      Introduction to viruses

      Coronavirus

      Viruses are the most abundant organic beings on earth. They are present everywhere within our environment as well as inside us. However, they do not perform all the functions we consider vital for a biological entity to be classified as a life form. They have no cellular structure and they lack most components of cells. They cannot make their own energy, nor grow without a host cell. Once a virus enters a host cell, though, it can take over and use the cell to make more copies of itself. It depends on the host cell for energy and the raw materials for this to happen. A virus cannot sustain itself.

      Viruses are principally composed of a nucleic acid core, an outer protein coating, and sometimes an outer protein envelope. The nucleic acid core can be composed of either DNA or RNA, never both. Viruses may also have other proteins, for example, enzymes.

      Viruses can be thought of as parasitic since they use hosts, be it plants, birds, insects, or mammals (including humans) to replicate and ensure their continued existence. They can only replicate by using a host’s cells and thus thrive via infection. Although they are not living, they can affect the behaviour of their host. Viruses are not always harmful to their host and may exist within cells in a dormant state or at a very slow rate of replication, seemingly undetected by the immune system.

      Viruses are and have been, an important factor in transferring genes between different species, and thus in the increase of genetic diversity. One theory suggests that the arrival of the nucleus in life forms on earth may have come about through a persistent DNA virus.

      Prokaryotes, such as bacteria, are organisms whose cells do not have membrane-bound organelles. These are small, generally microscopic, and relatively simple cells surrounded by a membrane and cell wall containing a circular strand of DNA. The nucleus is a part of the cell that differentiates eukaryotes from prokaryotes. Eukaryotic cells are more complex due to their specialised organelles, and they generally belong to multicellular organisms. In eukaryotes, the DNA is linear and found within a nucleus. The general consensus is that eukaryotes evolved from prokaryotes, possibly via the actions of a type of virus called the retrovirus. Some evidence supports this theory, but the exact steps involved in this process are not confirmed.

      Viruses are the microscopic particles responsible for some of the most threatening diseases, including influenza, smallpox, ebola, and rabies. Due to their ever-changing nature, they have been difficult to categorise and to understand.

      What coronaviruses are

      Coronaviruses (CoVs) are a large family of viruses that infect humans, animals, and birds. In both animals and humans, they cause respiratory and intestinal infections. The respiratory illnesses can range from the common cold to more severe and acute respiratory diseases.

      Coronaviruses are named after their appearance, with ‘corona’ meaning ‘crown’ or ‘halo’ in Latin. These viruses have a characteristic spherical shape with crown-like spikes on their surface and measure around 100-160nm in diameter.

      Each coronavirus’ genetic material comprises positive-sense single-stranded RNA (or (+)ssRNA). This means that the positive-sense RNA genome of the virus can use the host cell’s ribosomes to directly translate RNA into protein. Ribosomes are in all living cells. They serve as a site of biological protein synthesis by linking amino acids in the order defined by the messenger RNA. Each virus body contains a single-stranded positive-sense RNA genome that interacts with the nucleoprotein, measuring 27-32 kb.

      They are on the larger side with viruses and also have the largest genome in comparison with all other RNA viruses. This RNA genome is found inside a helical nucleocapsid protein and further surrounded by another membrane coating called an envelope. Three different proteins are incorporated within the viral envelope: Membrane (M), Envelope (E) and Spike (S) proteins. The M and E proteins are associated with assembling the virus. The S protein moderates the virus infiltration into the host cells.

      Coronaviruses that affect human health are of the family Coronaviridae subfamily Coronavirinae. There are four main sub-groupings of human coronaviruses - alpha, beta, gamma, and delta. Among these genera included in this subfamily, Alphacoronavirus and Betacoronavirus are the ones which interest clinical virologists. Some of these viruses were first identified and described in the 1960s, and until this day, we know of seven coronaviruses that can affect the human population. Four of these seven coronaviruses commonly affect people around the world.

      The relatively newer (or ‘novel’) coronaviruses that have infected people are MERS-CoV, SARS-CoV and SARS-CoV-2 (which causes COVID-19). Until the appearance of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) in 2002 coronaviruses were thought of as minor pathogens for humans. Until then, they were only linked to the common cold or mild respiratory symptoms affecting immunocompromised people and rarely exhibiting severe infections in the elderly or the very young.

      Coronaviruses are zoonotic, meaning they can be passed between animals and humans. Until the 21st century, coronaviruses were not considered highly pathogenic to the human race. When the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) occurred in 2002 and 2003 in the Guangdong province of China, the first severe infections were seen. Before that only mild infections had been observed, and these mostly occurred in those with compromised immune systems. It was, therefore, SARS that put coronaviruses in the spotlight and highlighted the need for experts to continue learning more about this family of viruses.

      Ten years after the outbreak of SARS, another coronavirus was identified, which was also highly pathogenic, and this was the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV).

      Both SARS and MERS were studied extensively, and this has led to a better understanding of the origin, composition, and behaviour of coronaviruses. On the basis of sequence databases obtained from these and several other types of coronaviruses, it has been established that all human coronaviruses have animal origins.

      How zoonosis happens?

      Woman looking at meat being sold in a supermarket

      The word zoonosis comes from the Greek terms for: ζῷον zoon animal and νόσος nosos sickness.

      Zoonosis is a type of infectious disease that passes from an animal or insect to a human. These can be viruses, bacteria, fungi, and parasites. They do not always necessarily infect the animal. Sometimes more than one type of animal can be involved in this transmission so that one animal can be an intermediary transmitting the zoonotic microbe between an animal and a human.

      Zoonotic diseases are common throughout the world. It is estimated that around 60% of known infectious diseases in people can be spread from animals and that three-quarters of new and emerging diseases in humans

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