AstonJ

AstonJ

Why is Covid-19 so infectious?

I’ve not heard many outlets comment about this - but anyone else wondering why it is so infectious?

We get new cold and flu viruses every year, yet they infect a fraction of the number of people - what makes Covid-19 so much more infectious?

Most Liked

AstonJ

AstonJ

It’s also possible that we catch those but our immune systems fight them off and we don’t notice.

However:

COVID19 is 30x more deadly and almost 2x more contagious than the flu. We have no existing immunity to COVID19.

https://twitter.com/VirusesImmunity/status/1238475009712160769

This article looks really good with some good info too:

One of the few mercies during this crisis is that, by their nature, individual coronaviruses are easily destroyed. Each virus particle consists of a small set of genes, enclosed by a sphere of fatty lipid molecules, and because lipid shells are easily torn apart by soap, 20 seconds of thorough hand-washing can take one down. Lipid shells are also vulnerable to the elements; a recent study shows that the new coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, survives for no more than a day on cardboard, and about two to three days on steel and plastic. These viruses don’t endure in the world. They need bodies.

To be clear, SARS-CoV-2 is not the flu. It causes a disease with different symptoms, spreads and kills more readily, and belongs to a completely different family of viruses. This family, the coronaviruses, includes just six other members that infect humans. Four of them—OC43, HKU1, NL63, and 229E—have been gently annoying humans for more than a century, causing a third of common colds. The other two—MERS and SARS (or “SARS-classic,” as some virologists have started calling it)—both cause far more severe disease. Why was this seventh coronavirus the one to go pandemic?

AstonJ

AstonJ

…but I wonder why does it appear to be more contagious than other viruses such as colds and flus? Assuming it behaves like other Coronaviruses.

I’ve probably had a flu once or twice in the last 10 years and a cold a handful of times (even when people nearby have had it).

Are we likely to see a dormant-like state of it? Like with HSV - which only results in symptoms when you are run down, etc? Maybe it will reach the infection rates of other viruses such as HPV. Perhaps people will carry it from a young age, but it will only create issues as they get older…

patrickdm

patrickdm

Flu is not a coronavirus, while common Cold virus are.
This is a novel virus for humanity, only recently it made the species jump from presumably bats to humans. No one has ever encountered it yet, there is no herd immunity against it reducing its spread from person to person. It is airborne transmisible, and asymptomatic or presymptomatics can infect a large number of people without even knowing they are infected. All this can account for its high rate of contagious.

Where Next?

Popular Science Tech topics Top

wolf4earth
In the past years the topic of mental health has become a lot more prevalent - at least in my personal filter bubble. And while the tech ...
New
AstonJ
Just curious - do you eat any foods containing gluten? Do you have any thoughts on gluten? Examples of foods containing gluten: Bread ...
New
First poster: bot
Five years ago, scientists created a single-celled synthetic organism that, with only 473 genes, was the simplest living cell ever known....
New
First poster: davearonson
There is no home therapeutic treatment for COVID-19 patients, and similarly no prophylactic treatment for at risk patients (elderly, dise...
New
First poster: bot
In this post I’ll describe how to sequence a human genome at home, something that’s only recently become possible. The protocol described...
New
First poster: bot
Microplastics Found In Live Human Lung Tissue For The First Time. From the top of the tallest mountain to the depths of the ocean floor,...
New
First poster: bot
It’s well known that weightlifting can strengthen our biceps and quads. Now, there’s accumulating evidence that strengthening the muscles...
New
First poster: bot
Endemic Pathogens are Making You Crazy and Then Killing You | RETURN. Nobody warned you about them, but they’re destroying your mind and...
New
CommunityNews
Background We aim to study the potential association between tattoo ink exposure and development of certain types of cancers in the recen...
New
CommunityNews
Importance Light at night causes circadian disruption, which is a known risk factor for adverse cardiovascular outcomes. However, it is n...
New

Other popular topics Top

DevotionGeo
I know that these benchmarks might not be the exact picture of real-world scenario, but still I expect a Rust web framework performing a ...
New
AstonJ
Or looking forward to? :nerd_face:
New
AstonJ
SpaceVim seems to be gaining in features and popularity and I just wondered how it compares with SpaceMacs in 2020 - anyone have any thou...
New
AstonJ
Do the test and post your score :nerd_face: :keyboard: If possible, please add info such as the keyboard you’re using, the layout (Qw...
New
PragmaticBookshelf
“Finding the Boundaries” Hero’s Journey with Noel Rappin @noelrappin Even when you’re ultimately right about what the future ho...
New
dimitarvp
Small essay with thoughts on macOS vs. Linux: I know @Exadra37 is just waiting around the corner to scream at me “I TOLD YOU SO!!!” but I...
New
wmnnd
Here’s the story how one of the world’s first production deployments of LiveView came to be - and how trying to improve it almost caused ...
New
AstonJ
If you get Can't find emacs in your PATH when trying to install Doom Emacs on your Mac you… just… need to install Emacs first! :lol: bre...
New
First poster: bot
Large Language Models like ChatGPT say The Darnedest Things. The Errors They MakeWhy We Need to Document Them, and What We Have Decided ...
New
New