Virus secrets, some known unknowns

https://www.washingtonpost.com/health...

6.5 million deaths, 16% in the US

Researchers, more than 200,000 studies

Four times the number on influenza in the 100 years

Where did the virus come from, and why has it been so successful?

Vincent Munster, virus ecology, Rocky Mountain Laboratories, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases

We’ve now identified 20 or 30 of these viruses that all look very similar, but they are not the same. What is the true hideout place of the progenitor of SARS-CoV-2

Escape from a lab

Virus evolved in nature and was being studied

Virus was created in the lab by researchers

How does it mutates so rapidly?

(proofreading systems)

Immune compromised people

Reverse zoonosis

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-...

https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.11...

Virus found in 29 other animals so far

Mink, hamsters, mice, white-tailed deer, cats, dogs, ferrets, lions, tigers, snow leopards, otters, non-human primates, hyenas, hippopotamuses, and manatees.
mule deer, a black-tailed marmoset, a giant anteater

Massively variable clinical picture?

Why are older people effected more and children and the young protected?

Why is it better to be 1 than 50?

1918 flu pandemic

Highest mortality rates, children 5 and under, adults 20 to 40, 65 and older

1957 flu pandemic, Increases in the mortality rate relative to baseline

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/arti...

Greatest in school-aged children, young adults, elderly population

Something to do with mucosal immunity and interferons?

https://www.nature.com/articles/s4158...

Genetic variation
Association Between the LZTFL1 rs11385942 Polymorphism and COVID-19 Severity in Colombian Population
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35795...

Genetic and non-genetic factors are responsible for the high interindividual variability in the response to SARS-CoV-2.

https://support.google.com/youtube/an...
Content that claims that any group or individual has immunity to the virus or cannot transmit the virus
Why do some people develop long covid?

Why does covid severity differ by age and from one person to another?

Self-reported long COVID more common

https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulati...

aged 35 to 69 years

females

people living in more deprived areas

those working in social care

people not looking for work (less common in people looking for work)

another activity-limiting health condition or disability   

As time goes by

Bill Powderly, Division of Infectious Diseases, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis.

The virus is becoming more infectious but less dangerous for the majority of people

But we’ve no guarantee that the virus wouldn’t develop additional mutations that would eventually make it more virulent in the future