Coronavirus for Dummies

I did in-depth research on the novel Coronavirus or the Covid-19 so that you don’t have to. Let’s go over the key findings to understand the virus and the situation a little better. I will avoid using scientific terminology so that people without a bioscience background can understand it with ease.

{I read a bunch of research articles and publications as well as sources they used. I have only put it all together and simplified it for a layman to understand. All credits for the information goes to the researchers and publishers. Sources at the end of the article.}

A virus named SARS-CoV-2 started to spread a respiratory disease in humans in late 2019 in China. The disease is now called the Covid-19 (Coronavirus disease 2019).

Coronaviruses (CoV) are not novel and unheard of. Till today, we know six types of coronaviruses. Four out of which have been gently annoying humans for more than a century, causing a third of common colds and issues like a runny nose. Sounds pretty harmless, right? Well, most of the known coronaviruses are. However, the CoV-1 that spread in 2003 and now the CoV-2 of 2019 are pretty deadly. It’s still unknown what makes some of the coronaviruses harmless and the others so harmful.

A close resemblance of the CoV-2 virus is found in bats and is not exactly a human virus. But with natural modification (what scientists call mutation), the virus adapted itself to stick to human body cells, which marked the beginning of the mayhem in Wuhan.

A study of the genome data of the Cov2 revealed no artificial engineering, making a rock-solid case to prove that the virus emerged from natural processes.

By now, you probably have seen the emoji of a virus on your phone 🦠. A virus, in reality, looks very similar. A small ball with spikes around. The spikes of the virus help it to stick to cells. However, the spikes in CoV2 are found to be extremely sticky. Which makes it easier and faster for the virus to spread from one person to another.

Once the CoV2 virus enters the human body, it starts to stick to the cells in our airways. When the cells die, it accumulates in the tracks causing it to clog. This makes breathing difficult. Once the body detects the virus, the immune system tries to fight it. However, since the virus is new to the body, our immune system sometimes goes berserk and deploys more aid than necessary which becomes counterproductive and jams the lungs further.

The CoV2 virus sits in our airways first and does not attack the lungs from the day of infection. This delays the symptoms which in turn makes early detection of the disease difficult. The prevalence of the virus in the airways also makes it easier to spread from one person to another by sneezing or coughing.

The family of coronaviruses is seen to become more active in winter. This is because, in cold dry months, the layer of liquid coating on our lungs becomes thin, which exposes our tiny hair. The hair becomes a safe haven for the viruses and the dryness in the air makes our immune responses weaker. However, seeing the spread of CoV2 in Australia which is still in summer, it is unclear whether hotter weather has any negative effect on this species of the coronavirus. Does summer stop CoV2? Doesn’t look like it. Will winter make it stronger? The chances of that happening cannot be ruled out yet.

The end of the disease does not seem near. I’m not fear-mongering. I’m not overly pessimistic either. Let’s evaluate the situation at hand and what it means in the longer run.

The world has adapted mitigation through social distancing. Which means reducing the number of people each infected person meets and risks infecting or getting infected from. Social distancing will slow the spread of the virus. But slowing the spread will only buy us time. Social isolation will not eradicate CoV2 or contain it completely. It is not the solution. Here’s why.

Like we established earlier, coronavirus is difficult to detect and easily spread. It usually gets detected within 2–14 days of infection, however, the extreme ranges go from 0–27 days. Even if the governments were to announce a total lock-down of over a month, what happens after the lockdown has been lifted? The cycle that led to the widespread starts all over again. One infects two, two infect four, four infect eight and the chain goes on.

So if a vaccine takes around a year, social-distancing is not the solution, and testing everyone before letting them free is not a feasible solution at the moment, then what is? No one knows.

To me personally, it’s like we are waiting for the magic to happen, we are finally ceding to god to come to our rescue. Until then, stay safe and enjoy every moment. When we make it to the other end, the world would probably look much different.

Sources:

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