A terrific a
rticle that lays out clearly why this virus is different.
I urge you to read the whole thing, it’s easy to understand. But a few takeaways
1. Flu is an all human virus, so is recognizable by our immune system. This virus is not.
2. It’s mutating quite rapidly. There are now at least two types, which makes developing a vaccine more difficult.
3. The mutated virus has the capacity to severely damage human lungs.
4. Henry the VIII self isolated during the plague and survived. So if it was good enough for Henry VIII?
Feeling confused as to why coronavirus is a bigger deal than seasonal flu? Here it is in a nutshell. I hope this helps. Feel free to share this to others who don’t understand.
It has to do with RNA sequencing, i.e. genetics.
Seasonal flu is an “all human virus”. The DNA/RNA chains that make up the virus are recognized by the human immune system. This means that your body has some immunity to it before it comes around each year. You get immunity two ways, through exposure to a virus, or by getting a flu shot.
Novel viruses, come from animals. The WHO tracks novel viruses in animals, (sometimes for years watching for mutations). Usually these viruses only transfer from animal to animal (pigs in the case of H1N1) (birds in the case of the Spanish flu).
Feeling confused as to why coronavirus is a bigger deal than seasonal flu? Here it is in a nutshell. I hope this helps. Feel free to share this to others who don’t understand.
It has to do with RNA sequencing, i.e. genetics.
Seasonal flu is an “all human virus”. The DNA/RNA chains that make up the virus are recognized by the human immune system. This means that your body has some immunity to it before it comes around each year. You get immunity two ways, through exposure to a virus, or by getting a flu shot.
Novel viruses, come from animals. The WHO tracks novel viruses in animals, (sometimes for years watching for mutations). Usually these viruses only transfer from animal to animal (pigs in the case of H1N1) (birds in the case of the Spanish flu). But once one of these animal viruses mutates and starts to transfer from animals to humans, then it’s a problem. Why? Because we have no natural or acquired immunity. The RNA sequencing of the genes inside the virus isn’t human, and the human immune system doesn’t recognize it so, we can’t fight it off…
It existed in animals only, for nobody knows how long, but one day at an animal market in Wuhan, China, in December 2019, it mutated and made the jump from animal to people. At first, only animals could give it to a person. But here is the scary part, in just TWO WEEKS it mutated again and gained the ability to jump from human to human. Scientists call this quick ability, “slippery.”..
And it just so happens that this particular mutated animal virus changed itself in such a way that it causes great damage to human lungs.
That’s why coronavirus is different from seasonal flu, or H1N1 or any other type of influenza. This one is slippery. And it’s a lung eater. And, it’s already mutated AGAIN, so we now have two strains to deal with, strain S, and strain L, which makes it twice as hard to develop a vaccine.
