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Something very strange about COVID-19

Cooky

Veteran Member
I was under the impression that it was rare that a virus jumps species. Now we have 5 species it's jumped to, if we include humans from bats, within the last 6 months or so.

...Has this ever been seen before?
 

Brickjectivity

Turned to Stone. Now I stretch daily.
Staff member
Premium Member
I was under the impression that it was rare that a virus jumps species. Now we have 5 species it's jumped to, if we include humans from bats, within the last 6 months or so.

...Has this ever been seen before?
I've never heard of anything doing it rapidly, but most diseases don't have such a long incubation period. You can be sick with this for 2 weeks and not know that you're contagious!
 

MNoBody

Well-Known Member
nuclear-emergency.jpg
 

Valjean

Veteran Member
Premium Member
Not necessarily a new feature. A cat cell isn't that different from a human cell. Likely many cat and dog cells already have some surface structures the virus can key into and gain entrance.
 

Cooky

Veteran Member
Not necessarily a new feature. A cat cell isn't that different from a human cell. Likely many cat and dog cells already have some surface structures the virus can key into and gain entrance.

I'm mostly curious if this rate of cross-species trasmission is common - 5 species in 6 months...

...Or is this rate unusual.
 

Valjean

Veteran Member
Premium Member
I'm mostly curious if this rate of cross-species trasmission is common - 5 species in 6 months...

...Or is this rate unusual.
We can't know how easily it's transmitted to other animals till we know the degree of their exposure and the percentage of infected animals in the total population. -- something we don't know much about even in humans.
Maybe there are dozens of animals that are susceptible.
 

ADigitalArtist

Veteran Member
Staff member
Premium Member
It is not that rare for virus to 'jump species.' Influenza a can infect human, cats, horses, ferrets, chicken, pigs and even whales.
But more importantly, there's a difference between 'the virus has changed' and 'we've just discovered this quality about the virus.' For all we know asymptomatic zoonotic infections have been going on cross species for months but there hasn't been sufficient caseloads for it to pop up on our radar.
 

sun rise

The world is on fire
Premium Member
There are many zoonotic diseases. Some are:
Zoonosis: Definition, Types, and Diseases List
 

Twilight Hue

Twilight, not bright nor dark, good nor bad.
What already has been shown is that the virus initially came from an animal, so it's not surprising to see it jumped from species to species. Ourselves being one example.
 

Aupmanyav

Be your own guru
Now it is in the water of River Seine. Versatile virus.
Some places, they are not allowing burials but cremation that it does not percolate into ground water.
 

Cooky

Veteran Member
It is not that rare for virus to 'jump species.' Influenza a can infect human, cats, horses, ferrets, chicken, pigs and even whales.
But more importantly, there's a difference between 'the virus has changed' and 'we've just discovered this quality about the virus.' For all we know asymptomatic zoonotic infections have been going on cross species for months but there hasn't been sufficient caseloads for it to pop up on our radar.
There are many zoonotic diseases. Some are:
Zoonosis: Definition, Types, and Diseases List

Right, but I would think that hundreds or thousands of years of time would have helped these viruses jump species. With Covid-19, we see it's jumped 5 times in a matter of months.

...I was just wondering if the *rate* was normal. Personally, I have no idea, or any inclination to try and assume.
 
Last edited by a moderator:

metis

aged ecumenical anthropologist
I've never heard of anything doing it rapidly, but most diseases don't have such a long incubation period. You can be sick with this for 2 weeks and not know that you're contagious!
And this is a BIGGY above.

When at first some researchers believed it was just primarily passed by our hands, that didn't make any sense to me because of the rapidity of the spread. As it turns out, a study done at MIT found that if a person sneezes or coughs, the "mist" containing the virus can spread as far as 27 feet and hang in the air for up to two hours.

It simply ain't like the flu, and since a few in our family have had it with one dying, if one listens to what they say, they'll tell one that this is VERY different from the typical flu.
 

HonestJoe

Well-Known Member
I'm mostly curious if this rate of cross-species trasmission is common - 5 species in 6 months...

...Or is this rate unusual.
It's not highly unusual for coronaviruses, especially given the extent of the spread of COVID-19. It's worth noting that the lions, tigers and house-cats could well be a single jump that can affect felines in general. This could be the high end of the scale but still within the scope of "normal".

https://www.quantamagazine.org/how-do-animal-viruses-like-coronavirus-jump-species-20200225/
 

MNoBody

Well-Known Member
they still have no definitive test that determines it is this culprit when they "test" people or animals.
a reverse transcription-preliminary chain reaction [RT-PCR} test is not definitive [80% false positives is not definitive and would not hold up in a murder trial if it was presented as the test fingering the guilty party]
exosomes which are present due to other diseases, are being counted as this virus.
that is a huge problem for all the chicken littles who are so sure about everything
 

Dan From Smithville

What's up Doc?
Staff member
Premium Member
Right, but I would think that hundreds or thousands of years of time would have helped these viruses jump species. With Covid-19, we see it's jumped 5 times in a matter of months.

...I was just wondering if the *rate* was normal. Personally, I have no idea, or any inclination to try and assume.
I do not know the mutation rate in corona viruses, but in general mutations occur frequently in biological entities. Humans have about 50 to 100 per person per generation.

Host shifting is not unusual in viruses and since the original source was mammalian, infecting other mammal species is not that unusual. What is of greater concern is that now there can be several different species that can act as reservoirs for the virus. This makes it much more difficult to control and offers novel opportunity for further mutations that could increase virulence or pathogenicity.
 
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