Prof. Debi Lindel, a virologist from the Faculty of Biology, in a lecture to the general public about the corona virus, what it is, why the virus is causing a worldwide epidemic and why it is difficult to produce anti-virus drugs
Last week, 340 people watched the online lecture of Prof. Debbie Lindel, a faculty member in the Faculty of Biology at the Technion, on the subject of the Corona virus. The lecture presented the "science behind the corona virus". In doing so, the mechanisms of action of the virus, the ways of infection, the routes of spread of the disease in the world and the measures taken to curb the plague were reviewed.
Prof. Debbie Lindel, a faculty member in the Faculty of Biology at the Technion, is a virologist who deals with the interactions between marine bacteria and the viruses that attack them. She immigrated from Australia at the age of 20 and completed all her degrees at the Hebrew University. She then went on to do a post-doctorate in civil and environmental engineering at MIT and in 2006 joined the Faculty of Biology at the Technion. She has won many awards including the Henry Taub Award and the Creel Award and two ERC grants from the European Research Council.
Prof. Lindel opened the lecture with a personal reference to the consequences of the current epidemic on her family members: her son, who worked in the field of tourism in Japan, lost his job; Her daughter had to cut short a trip to South America; Her brother, who has opened a new business in Australia, does not know what lies ahead; And her relative who lives in France is now on a ventilator after contracting the virus. "It is very important that we take this epidemic seriously," said Prof. Lindel. "Current figures indicate 18,500 victims - people who died from the virus mainly due to complications in the respiratory system. The cumulative number of infected so far - about 425,000. The new virus is not as deadly as Ebola, which kills 40% of its patients, but it is 24 times more deadly than the flu, and the current epidemic is also very widespread; More than 160 countries are currently dealing with the virus. That's why it's important to understand what it's about from a scientific point of view and how the world reacts to the epidemic."
What is a virus? A virus is a tiny parasite consisting of hereditary material and a protein coat that protects this material. Why a parasite? Because it depends on some host cell and cannot reproduce without it. The host cell can be a bacterium (yes, even bacteria are infected by viruses) or a cell in a more complex organism such as a human.
Some of the viruses that infect humans have a fatty envelope with proteins on it that know how to recognize the potential host, stick to it and penetrate it. This is the basic mechanism of the spread of viral diseases: the virus identifies a potential host cell, clings to it, penetrates it, takes over it and turns it into a factory for the creation of new viruses, which will penetrate additional cells and thus cause a disease that spreads throughout the body of the organism. Later, the viruses will jump from organism to organism - for example, from person to person.
It is important to understand that the environment is full of viruses, and most of the time our body overcomes them without us noticing that it has been attacked. To cause a disease, a large group of viruses needs to overcome all the lines of defense of the organism.
Who is corona virus? The scientific name of the new corona virus is SARS-CoV-2 and the disease it causes in humans is called COVID-19 or by its popular name "corona". SARS-CoV-2 is a spherical virus with a diameter of 80-120 nm, visible from above like a crown or sun, hence its name - Corona means "crown" or "crown of the sun" in Latin. The hereditary material of the corona virus is RNA, and the virus recognizes the potential host cell based on a receptor called ACE2 found on that cell.
Is it an engineered virus?
No. Today, based on genomic research, we know the origin of the virus. According to the hypothesis, it was a bat that transmitted the disease to man. How do you know that? Based on a huge genomic similarity (96%) between the new corona virus and the RaTG13 virus present in bats. That is why we know that this is a zoonotic disease, that is, a virus that developed in animals and from which it passed to humans.
They say that corona virus is not new.
SARS-CoV-2 is a new virus, but it is not the first coronavirus in history. In fact, it is the seventh corona virus to affect humans. It was preceded by four mild types of corona, which are responsible for some of the colds we experience, and two dangerous viruses: MERS-CoV, which was discovered in Saudi Arabia in 2012 and South Korea in 2015, and SARS-CoV, which developed in China like the current virus.
Unlike its two predecessors, which together killed only 1,632 people, SARS-CoV-2 has already claimed 18,500 victims, and its hand is still bent.
Milestones in the evolution of the epidemic: late November or early December 2019 - the virus passes from an animal, most likely a bat, to a human. 11/12/2019 First hospitalization of a corona patient in Wuhan, China. 11/01/2020 First victim of the corona virus died in China. 24/01/2020 First corona patient diagnosed in Europe (France). 21/02/2020 First corona patient diagnosed in Israel. 01/03/2020 First infection inside Israel. 11/03/2020 The World Health Organization announces: Corona is a pandemic - a global epidemic. 20/03/2020 First death from corona in Israel.
The fear of the virus stems from the following facts:
First, this is a new virus in humans, so humanity is "naive" about it, that is - our body does not know it and is not vaccinated against it.
Second, the new virus has a very unique feature: even people who do not yet have symptoms may infect others. In other words, a person who feels and looks perfectly healthy may infect healthy people, and the symptoms will only come a few days later. According to current estimates, from the moment of infection to the appearance of symptoms, about five days pass. It is therefore very important to expand the existing tests (RT-PCR), which also identify pre-symptomatic patients, and apply them to anyone who comes into contact with a confirmed patient.
Third, the basic propagation coefficient of the new virus is quite high and is estimated at 2.9. This variable, whose professional name is R0, describes the number of people a sick person is expected to infect during the entire period of his illness. When R0=1, the disease is stable - each person infects one person, and thus the number of infected remains constant. If the coefficient of spread is less than 1, the disease is expected to fade, and if it is greater than 1, we must prepare for an epidemic - a disease that keeps spreading.
The basic spread coefficient of the new corona virus is estimated at 2.9, so the disease tends to spread. By the way, this is one of the reasons why the comparison to "seasonal flu" is unfounded, because the basic spread rate of flu is only 1.3%. In a situation of R0=3, which is close to the figure we know about the new corona virus, the first patient will infect three people, and they will infect nine, and the nine will infect 27, and after 12 such rounds there will be about a million and a half infected.
Fourth, the mortality rate from the new corona virus is also quite high: in a global review, about 3.5% of confirmed patients died from the disease. Here too, the comparison to the flu indicates a difference more than a similarity: the death rate from the flu is only around 0.1%.
Fifth, no one is absolutely protected from the disease; The virus also affects young and healthy people, although at relatively low rates. A health-impaired population - people with breathing problems, high blood pressure, heart disease, diabetes and cancer - is at a particularly high risk, and most victims of the corona eventually die from lung collapse (ARDS). As already published, age is a significant risk factor: mortality rates gradually increase with age from 0.2% (age 49-10) to 14.8% (age 80 and over).
However, there are some bright spots in the fight against the new corona virus:
- The ability of regional and national authorities to significantly reduce the coefficient of spread (R0), i.e. the rate of infection. If the "natural" infection rate (without intentional intervention) is estimated at 2.9, then isolation, testing, closure and similar actions reduce this variable dramatically. For example, the first steps taken by China lowered R0 from 3.9 to 1.25, but the authorities were not satisfied with that, and subsequent steps reduced this figure to 0.3. This means a gradual containment of the epidemic. Determined and early steps at the national and regional level reduce not only the coefficient of spread (R0) but also the mortality rate. While in Italy the death rate is 8%, in Germany it is lower than 0.5% - a huge achievement related to the steps taken by the German government ahead of time.
- On a personal level, maintaining hygiene (alcohol and soap) and keeping a distance from other people reduce the risk of infection. The virus passes from person to person only by droplet infection, that is, only in liquids such as saliva and snot, and cannot float alone in the free air. That is why a distance of two meters was established from person to person - so that this spray would fall on the way. It is now known that the virus can survive for a long time on surfaces, and even three days on steel, but cleaning agents such as alcohol and bleach eliminate it.
- Other viruses that pass from person to person by droplet infection, for example influenza viruses, are characterized by the fact that high temperature and high humidity slow down their spread. If this feature also characterizes SARS-CoV-2, it is possible that the rise in temperatures towards the approaching summer will help in curbing the epidemic, similar to the process we know from seasonal flu.
- Today we already know the basic infection mechanism of the virus. The "spikes" of the corona virus, which give it the same shape as the sun, know how to recognize the human ACE2 receptor on the surface of our cells, stick to the cell and penetrate it. Therefore, an extensive effort is now being made to damage - using antibodies, for example - the ability of the virus to connect to ACE2. Another possibility is to "help" the immune system to identify the virus as an enemy and eliminate it.
- Based on the characteristics of other corona viruses, it is possible that the new virus is also characterized by a low rate of mutation development. Mutations allow viruses to bypass the immune system. In seasonal flu, for example, the rate of development of mutations is high, so we must update the flu vaccine every year since the viruses have changed relative to the previous year so the vaccine is no longer effective against them. If, as mentioned, SARS-CoV-2 is characterized by a low rate of mutation development, this means that once there is a vaccine against it, it will be valid and effective also in future outbreaks of COVID-19.
In conclusion:
The SARS-CoV-2 virus first infected a person at the end of 2019, and from there the epidemic spread to hundreds of countries. Since it is a new virus, humanity is not vaccinated against it naturally or artificially, so it manages to spread at a relatively high speed. However, preventive actions at the individual and national level have already proven themselves in many countries - both in reducing the rate of spread and in reducing mortality rates. Huge efforts are currently being made on all fronts of science to curb the epidemic through treatments, drugs and vaccines.
More of the topic in Hayadan:
3 תגובות
According to the theory of Kabbalah, everything in the world - wherever it is, however it is - has a causality and a revised version, a version of holiness from which it hangs, as stated in the Zohar "because purity implies that there is impurity, therefore you can refine and raise the impurity to purity because it itself hung from purity - and cleanse you of all your impurities." The corona virus shakes humanity and marks the red line, nature tears off the masks from our faces and reveals our weaknesses and warns of further blows that may come, God forbid, if human society does not mend its ways and stop violating the delicate and fragile balance in nature. For the first time in our lives together, I felt that this was a deliberate blow from above with a sharp and clear message, a kind of educational punishment that came to straighten us out and put us in our place. Everything that man does and asks for in nature, from building his house and city to his work in the field, should be done in a different way and with a different mental attitude. Man should ask nature not only for his physical food and material life, but also for his food and mental life. It should be clear, because there is no other place for life, neither for the life of the body nor for the life of the soul, apart from nature. Man has already learned to know how essential nature is to him in terms of his physical and mental health and whenever we abuse it he will find a way to return it to us as our reward. The Zohar saying is able to the soul. that reading the Kabbalah is a correction for this wrong. That's why the Kabbalists were called Machedi Hakala [field reapers] after those who cut all the husks and studying the Zohar is generally a correction for everyone
Any manipulation may come into play
So far you have only talked about results.
If you want to find the reasons, you have to go to the root from which we started: the Big Bang.
In the Big Bang process, gas particles came together under the influence of the force of gravity and the first gas stars were formed. As the stars contracted, intense heat was generated in their cores, which caused the burning process of hydrogen, and the formation of helium and other elements. The stars reach their end after burning their fuel, shrinking and exploding, releasing their content rich in elements everywhere in space. Our Earth contains the elements that previous generations of stars "bequeathed" to it.
***Valfuente: The chemical elements in our body are - from the stars.
So far everything is fine and dandy, known to the enthusiasts among us who are interested in the creation of the world.
So where is the innovation?
If we have found the history of the materials found on Earth, we may want to find the history of our actions and deeds on Earth.
In a superficial way it can be said that every action is the result of a thought that triggered the action. I first think and then act.
And what preceded the thought?????????
the will!
I first want, and only then calculate how to realize the desire.
If so, it can be said that our world is a world in which actions and actions dominate it, but the truth is that there are "hidden threads" that sustain, are the roots of those actions. And these "hidden threads" are our desires, thoughts and intentions.
Well, let's say some of you are nodding your heads but somehow agree with me.
How can we connect the first explanation of those substances from the big bang with our desires, our intentions, our thoughts.
My answer, (without going into the depth of the matter at the moment), is that the same materials that came from the explosion of the stars and us from this world, is that they are both made of separates, molecules, from a group of atoms that is the smallest unit of the material, which preserves the properties of the material.
And now try to connect the things...