The coronavirus today (likely) isn’t the one of two weeks ago
Bottom Line: As we’re bombarded with daily information about the coronavirus, including information that varies from the hysterical, IE San Francisco declaring a “State of Emergency” despite no diagnosed cases in the city and nothing specifically for public agencies to do with the emergency declaration – other than worry? To the intellectually offensive, IE Democrats in congress blaming the Trump administration for not funding research for a virus that didn’t knowingly exist until a month ago...comes an important factoid to consider. The virus today isn’t even likely the virus it was a few weeks ago.
Part of the reason a certain degree of fear over any virus that proves deadly is healthy – is due to what a virus is. Something that mutates. Thus, doesn’t have a “cure”. Recent history and current science tell us two very clear facts about viruses. Even if scientists figure out a vaccine for what ails people today, that vaccine will fail most people it’s administered to and that’s because viruses can mutate within 15 days. The coronavirus itself isn’t new. The reason the WHO renamed the coronavirus COVID-19, is for that very reason – to be more specific.
The first coronavirus was discovered in the 1960’s. There are four that are common in humans that don’t often even trigger a response. All told there are seven that are known to infect humans. The other three are the names you know... MERS, SARS and this one known as CoV. These are the bad boys of the strain that of course have been known to kill. On a daily basis we’re hearing varied counts of outbreaks and death rates, etc. Something to be mindful of is that it’s almost a guarantee there’s not just one active strain of this thing. It’s liable to be seven different things in seven different places right now which can lead to the varied accounts of what’s going on. The good news is this...Given that COVID-19 is the deadliest we’ve seen – any mutation off of that virus is potentially less deadly, less threatening. And again – viruses can mutate meaningfully in as few as two weeks.
The bad news remains this. Science is terrible, and I mean awful at effectively creating vaccines to keep up with viruses. The average flu shot effectiveness is 40%. This year’s success rate is 46%. The most common strain of flu is the H1N1 virus. The H1N1 virus was first diagnosed in 1918. Let me summarize in a way the science and medical establishment would never want me to. Medical science has been combating the H1N1 virus for 102 years. The current vaccine to immunize you against it fails most of the time it’s tried. Why? Mutation. That’s why counting on science to “fix” the coronavirus with a vaccine or research or whatever is a false premise to begin with...regarding viruses it’s always a matter of hygiene and containment because they’re always on the move.