Society's Child
Researchers at the South Korean centre for disease control and prevention (CDC) now say it is impossible for the COVID-19 virus to reactivate in human bodies.
There have been more than 10,000 confirmed coronavirus cases in South Korea, with 245 deaths - a 2.3% fatality rate, which is lower than the 3.4% average as stated by the World Health Organisation.
A total of 277 patients in the country were believed to have fallen ill for a second time, as had patients in China and Japan.
This prompted concerns that the virus could be mutating so quickly that people were not necessarily immune to catching it again.
However, genetic analyses of the virus have not found any substantial changes which would effectively disguise it from the immune system.
Partially as a result of these reports, the World Health Organisation warned governments against using so-called "immunity passports" to allow people to return to work simply because they have antibodies for the virus.
Immunity passports are a proposed way of allowing countries to begin to lift their coronavirus lockdowns in a targeted manner and resume economic activity.
They would be issued to people who have already overcome a COVID-19 infection and test positive for antibodies to the virus, based on the assumption they are therefore immune.
In an update to its guidance, the WHO warned there was "no evidence that people who have recovered from COVID-19 and have antibodies are protected from a second infection".
But it was not expected that the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test used to check the blood for antigens - actual particles of the virus itself - could also have issues.
South Korea's CDC has found that the test results for the suspected relapsed patients were false positives, and warned the test it used was not able to distinguish between live traces of the virus and the harmless dead samples which remain after patients have recovered.
The WHO has also warned that immunity certification depended upon the rapidly developed tests being checked for accuracy and reliability before being used.
"People who assume that they are immune to a second infection because they have received a positive test result may ignore public health advice," the WHO warned.
"The use of such certificates may therefore increase the risks of continued transmission," its guidance added at the time, although this guidance is currently being kept under review.
The CDC added that unlike other viruses, such as HIV and chickenpox - which can break into the nucleus of human cells and stay latent for years before reactivating - the coronavirus stays outside of the host cell's nucleus.
"This means it does not cause chronic infection or recurrence," explained Dr Oh Myoung-don, the head of the CDC committee, meaning it is unlikely for patients to relapse in this fashion.
In the future it could be possible that the coronavirus mutates and infects people who have previously overcome it, similarly to the flu.
Reader Comments
What if C1984 is a super contagious but relatively completely harmless virus that ripped through the population in late 2019 and spread worldwide before anyone even noticed it. Then we had another different respiratory bug that actually was killing people in Wuhan. Maybe another new coronavirus... maybe another influenza bug... They identify the wrong offender and we've got a classic case of target fixation. Being human, we can't possibly be wrong or accept that nature might have had TWO new bugs!
So all along we test for the wrong thing while the real killer is slowly creeping along at a much slower pace.
That might explain the emergence of these strange pockets of death that slowly creep from city to city.
I wish I was an epidemiologist these days... I'd have a lot of fun.
2) I wouldn't be surprised at all if they've got a thoroughly deadly CV1984 - especially for those folks who questioned this, big time and publicly so that they will "regret their prior statements", etc.
I knew this weeble was likely beyond reach so I said nothing only to have her amble in front of me and point to her mask with one sausage extended. The other array of thick deli meats was raised and splayed which seemed to indicate she'd like to discuss things.
It did not go as she had likely hoped.
The other array of thick deli meats was raised and splayed which seemed to indicate she'd like to discuss things.
It did not go as she had likely hoped
The woman behind the bar turned on her....
"WHAT ARE YOU???? ARE YOU A DOG OR SOMETHING??? YOU NEED TO BE TOLD WHAT YOU CAN AND CAN'T DO ALL THE TIME???"
LOL.
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