Vincent Li, Class of 2022
Originating in a food market in Wuhan of the Hubei Province, the virus now officially referred to as COVID-19, or more colloquially as the coronavirus, was first detected in December of 2019. China, initially unforthcoming regarding the virus’ transmissibility and severity of spread, diverted attention towards quelling the voices of whistleblowers in lieu of initiating public service announcements or quarantine measures at the outset of the outbreak. Though their preliminary statements indicated that human-to-human transmission was unfeasible and that the sickness was of no concern, the following weeks suggested the manifestation of something akin to the
2003 SARS epidemic.
SARS, or sudden acute respiratory syndrome, was similarly caused by a coronavirus, which is defined by the World Health Organization (WHO) as a grouping of viruses capable of attacking both animals and humans; this categorization includes SARS, Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), and COVID-19, among others (“Q&A on coronaviruses” 2020). Both SARS and MERS have symptoms similar to COVID-19--pneumonia, fever, and cough—but the former outbreaks also caused other health complications such as kidney failure in MERS (“MERS Symptoms & Complications” 2019), leading to mortality rates far greater; SARS’ mortality rate was 9.63%, whereas MERS’ mortality rate was 34.45% (“Coronavirus diseases” 2020). In comparison, the death rate of COVID-19 is fluctuating between 2% to 3% (ArcGIS 2020). Most of the symptoms are of low risk to healthy, non-immunocompromised young adults, but are more fatal for the elderly and sickly.
Even if the mortality rate of COVID-19 is relatively low, this particular coronavirus is concerning because of its scope. According to Johns Hopkins’ COVID-19 map (ArcGIS 2020), as of March
8, 2020, there have been 110,000 cases with 3,825 deaths. Its ability to propagate much more extensively than the other two viruses is because of the relatively low mortality rate and longer incubation times. By being less lethal to its carriers, COVID-19 ensures that the virus does not die off with its host before it has had the opportunity to transmit to another unknowing individual. Its incubation time from two days to approximately two weeks (“Symptoms” 2020) allows its host to readily spread the sickness to others while the carrier is asymptomatic.
Recent theories have proliferated throughout various social media forums suggesting that COVID-19 was not a commonplace zoonotic disease naturally transmitted between animals and humans, but something far more sinister. Inside the city of the index case of COVID-19 is a BSL-4 laboratory, which is specialized to handle highly contagious pathogens such as Ebola, HIV, and other disease-causing vectors without any existing cures or vaccines. These dubious claims largely stem from a paper highlighting biological markers present in COVID-19 and its similarity to HIV. In the now retracted 2020 scientific paper submitted by Pradhan, et al. (2020), the authors detail genetic insertions in COVID-19 distinct from other coronaviruses such as SARS or MERS that are similarly found in HIV-1 gp120.
The reality, however, is that these are baseless connections drawn for the sake of an almost “clickbait” title. Shortly after its release on bioRxiv, an archive for papers prior to publication in an official journal, the author’s retracted the paper (McDonald 2020). The proposed insertions of interest were found in sequences of various organisms, not solely the HIV virus, due to how short the inserts were. Given the expanse of any one organism’s genome, it is rather likely for small-scale sequences to be shared amongst other creatures. It is unethical scientific reporting to suggest such an alarming correlation without sufficient evidence or rationale. The effect of the paper, though more quickly withdrawn and not so extensive, is almost analogous to the paper purporting a link between the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) and autism released by Dr. Wakefield and his peers in 1998 (Eggertson 2010). Fear begets fear, ultimately leading to an influx of media companies that picked up on the supposed origin of COVID-19.
Within the United States, there are approximately 700 cases with over 20 deaths (The New York Times 2020) across 34 states. Numerous universities have already opted to employ remote classes and examinations where feasible due to members of faculty or students testing positive for COVID-19 (Hadden 2020).
What is particularly concerning is the absence of U.S. initiative in testing individuals and addressing the spread of the virus. The lack of test kits available for medical practitioners and laboratory personnel is alarming, especially when compared to other countries like South Korea: South Korea had tested over 60,000 individuals by February 27, 2020 (ABC News 2020) compared to only 445 in the U.S. Admittedly, the severity of the epidemic in South Korea surpassed the United States, but the faulty test kits that produced inconclusive results demonstrate the lack of foresight and preparation on behalf of the U.S. government (Shepardson 2020).
The United States’ flippant initial response to COVID-19 breaching its own borders, months after the index case in Wuhan, China, demonstrates how unlikely the country is to enforce quarantines with the same level of stringency as Italy or China. This unwillingness to exercise extreme caution is suggestive of the possibility that COVID-19 may become an endemic illness that occurs yearly similar to the seasonal flu, or may exist permanently in a small number of individuals yearlong (Begley 2020). Regardless of the outcome, the emergence of COVID-19 serves as a constant reminder of the underwhelming infrastructure present in some of the world’s most developed and wealthiest countries. This ongoing incident should be a lesson against disinformation and for preparation.
References
ABC News. [accessed 2020 Apr 3]. https://abcnews.go.com/International/massive-coronavirus-testing-program-south-korea- underscores-nimble/story?id=69226222
ArcGIS Dashboards. [accessed 2020 Apr 3]. https://www.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.html#/bda7594740fd40299423467b48 e9ecf6
Begley S. 2020 Feb 4. Experts envision two scenarios if the new coronavirus isn’t contained.
Stat News. [accessed 2020 Apr 2]. https://www.statnews.com/2020/02/04/two-scenarios-if-new-coronavirus-isnt-contained/?
fbclid=IwAR1h3b9SZw08YvaeB7pb0iKWPKt0NpKtYjscBlFnUCAd-Vx8cVkKGhHzAGo
Coronavirus diseases: Comparing COVID-19, SARS and MERS by the numbers. 2020 Mar 17. NBCNews.com. [accessed 2020 Apr 3].
https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/coronavirus-diseases-comparing-covid-19-sars-mers-numbers-n1150321
Eggertson L. 2010. Lancet retracts 12-year-old article linking autism to MMR vaccines. Canadian Medical Association Journal 182.
iXimus, V. K. (2020). [Untitled illustration of SARS-CoV-2]. Retrieved from https://pixabay.com/illustrations/corona-coronavirus-virus-pandemic-4901881/
In U.S., Cases of Coronavirus Cross 500, and Deaths Rise to 22. 2020 Mar 8. The New York Times. [accessed 2020 Apr 3]. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/08/world/coronavirus-news.html
Joey Hadden LC. 2020 Mar 24. Columbia, Harvard, NYU, and other major US colleges and universities that have switched to remote classes and are telling students to move out of dorms to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. Business Insider. [accessed 2020 Apr
3]. https://www.businessinsider.com/major-colleges-and-universities-going-remote-over-cor onavirus-fears
McDonald J. 2020 Feb 7. Baseless Conspiracy Theories Claim New Coronavirus Was Bioengineered. FactCheck.org. [accessed 2020 Apr 3]. https://www.factcheck.org/2020/02/baseless-conspiracy-theories-claim-new-coronavirus- was-bioengineered/
MERS Symptoms & Complications. 2019 Aug 2. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. [accessed 2020 Apr 3]. https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/mers/about/symptoms.html
Pradhan P, Pandey AK, Mishra A, Gupta P, Tripathi PK, Menon MB, Gomes J, Vivekanandan P, Kundu B. 2020. Uncanny similarity of unique inserts in the 2019-nCoV spike protein to HIV-1 gp120 and Gag.
Q&A on coronaviruses (COVID-19). World Health Organization. [accessed 2020 Apr 3]. https://www.who.int/news-room/q-a-detail/q-a-coronaviruses
Shepardson D. 2020 Mar 2. U.S. agency investigating production of faulty coronavirus test kits.Reuters. [accessed 2020 Apr 3].
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-health-test-kits/u-s-agency-investigating-produc tion-of-faulty-coronavirus-test-kits-idUSKBN20P09Y
Symptoms of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19). 2020 Feb 29. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. [accessed 2020 Apr 3].
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/about/symptoms.html
2003 SARS epidemic.
SARS, or sudden acute respiratory syndrome, was similarly caused by a coronavirus, which is defined by the World Health Organization (WHO) as a grouping of viruses capable of attacking both animals and humans; this categorization includes SARS, Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), and COVID-19, among others (“Q&A on coronaviruses” 2020). Both SARS and MERS have symptoms similar to COVID-19--pneumonia, fever, and cough—but the former outbreaks also caused other health complications such as kidney failure in MERS (“MERS Symptoms & Complications” 2019), leading to mortality rates far greater; SARS’ mortality rate was 9.63%, whereas MERS’ mortality rate was 34.45% (“Coronavirus diseases” 2020). In comparison, the death rate of COVID-19 is fluctuating between 2% to 3% (ArcGIS 2020). Most of the symptoms are of low risk to healthy, non-immunocompromised young adults, but are more fatal for the elderly and sickly.
Even if the mortality rate of COVID-19 is relatively low, this particular coronavirus is concerning because of its scope. According to Johns Hopkins’ COVID-19 map (ArcGIS 2020), as of March
8, 2020, there have been 110,000 cases with 3,825 deaths. Its ability to propagate much more extensively than the other two viruses is because of the relatively low mortality rate and longer incubation times. By being less lethal to its carriers, COVID-19 ensures that the virus does not die off with its host before it has had the opportunity to transmit to another unknowing individual. Its incubation time from two days to approximately two weeks (“Symptoms” 2020) allows its host to readily spread the sickness to others while the carrier is asymptomatic.
Recent theories have proliferated throughout various social media forums suggesting that COVID-19 was not a commonplace zoonotic disease naturally transmitted between animals and humans, but something far more sinister. Inside the city of the index case of COVID-19 is a BSL-4 laboratory, which is specialized to handle highly contagious pathogens such as Ebola, HIV, and other disease-causing vectors without any existing cures or vaccines. These dubious claims largely stem from a paper highlighting biological markers present in COVID-19 and its similarity to HIV. In the now retracted 2020 scientific paper submitted by Pradhan, et al. (2020), the authors detail genetic insertions in COVID-19 distinct from other coronaviruses such as SARS or MERS that are similarly found in HIV-1 gp120.
The reality, however, is that these are baseless connections drawn for the sake of an almost “clickbait” title. Shortly after its release on bioRxiv, an archive for papers prior to publication in an official journal, the author’s retracted the paper (McDonald 2020). The proposed insertions of interest were found in sequences of various organisms, not solely the HIV virus, due to how short the inserts were. Given the expanse of any one organism’s genome, it is rather likely for small-scale sequences to be shared amongst other creatures. It is unethical scientific reporting to suggest such an alarming correlation without sufficient evidence or rationale. The effect of the paper, though more quickly withdrawn and not so extensive, is almost analogous to the paper purporting a link between the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) and autism released by Dr. Wakefield and his peers in 1998 (Eggertson 2010). Fear begets fear, ultimately leading to an influx of media companies that picked up on the supposed origin of COVID-19.
Within the United States, there are approximately 700 cases with over 20 deaths (The New York Times 2020) across 34 states. Numerous universities have already opted to employ remote classes and examinations where feasible due to members of faculty or students testing positive for COVID-19 (Hadden 2020).
What is particularly concerning is the absence of U.S. initiative in testing individuals and addressing the spread of the virus. The lack of test kits available for medical practitioners and laboratory personnel is alarming, especially when compared to other countries like South Korea: South Korea had tested over 60,000 individuals by February 27, 2020 (ABC News 2020) compared to only 445 in the U.S. Admittedly, the severity of the epidemic in South Korea surpassed the United States, but the faulty test kits that produced inconclusive results demonstrate the lack of foresight and preparation on behalf of the U.S. government (Shepardson 2020).
The United States’ flippant initial response to COVID-19 breaching its own borders, months after the index case in Wuhan, China, demonstrates how unlikely the country is to enforce quarantines with the same level of stringency as Italy or China. This unwillingness to exercise extreme caution is suggestive of the possibility that COVID-19 may become an endemic illness that occurs yearly similar to the seasonal flu, or may exist permanently in a small number of individuals yearlong (Begley 2020). Regardless of the outcome, the emergence of COVID-19 serves as a constant reminder of the underwhelming infrastructure present in some of the world’s most developed and wealthiest countries. This ongoing incident should be a lesson against disinformation and for preparation.
References
ABC News. [accessed 2020 Apr 3]. https://abcnews.go.com/International/massive-coronavirus-testing-program-south-korea- underscores-nimble/story?id=69226222
ArcGIS Dashboards. [accessed 2020 Apr 3]. https://www.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.html#/bda7594740fd40299423467b48 e9ecf6
Begley S. 2020 Feb 4. Experts envision two scenarios if the new coronavirus isn’t contained.
Stat News. [accessed 2020 Apr 2]. https://www.statnews.com/2020/02/04/two-scenarios-if-new-coronavirus-isnt-contained/?
fbclid=IwAR1h3b9SZw08YvaeB7pb0iKWPKt0NpKtYjscBlFnUCAd-Vx8cVkKGhHzAGo
Coronavirus diseases: Comparing COVID-19, SARS and MERS by the numbers. 2020 Mar 17. NBCNews.com. [accessed 2020 Apr 3].
https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/coronavirus-diseases-comparing-covid-19-sars-mers-numbers-n1150321
Eggertson L. 2010. Lancet retracts 12-year-old article linking autism to MMR vaccines. Canadian Medical Association Journal 182.
iXimus, V. K. (2020). [Untitled illustration of SARS-CoV-2]. Retrieved from https://pixabay.com/illustrations/corona-coronavirus-virus-pandemic-4901881/
In U.S., Cases of Coronavirus Cross 500, and Deaths Rise to 22. 2020 Mar 8. The New York Times. [accessed 2020 Apr 3]. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/08/world/coronavirus-news.html
Joey Hadden LC. 2020 Mar 24. Columbia, Harvard, NYU, and other major US colleges and universities that have switched to remote classes and are telling students to move out of dorms to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. Business Insider. [accessed 2020 Apr
3]. https://www.businessinsider.com/major-colleges-and-universities-going-remote-over-cor onavirus-fears
McDonald J. 2020 Feb 7. Baseless Conspiracy Theories Claim New Coronavirus Was Bioengineered. FactCheck.org. [accessed 2020 Apr 3]. https://www.factcheck.org/2020/02/baseless-conspiracy-theories-claim-new-coronavirus- was-bioengineered/
MERS Symptoms & Complications. 2019 Aug 2. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. [accessed 2020 Apr 3]. https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/mers/about/symptoms.html
Pradhan P, Pandey AK, Mishra A, Gupta P, Tripathi PK, Menon MB, Gomes J, Vivekanandan P, Kundu B. 2020. Uncanny similarity of unique inserts in the 2019-nCoV spike protein to HIV-1 gp120 and Gag.
Q&A on coronaviruses (COVID-19). World Health Organization. [accessed 2020 Apr 3]. https://www.who.int/news-room/q-a-detail/q-a-coronaviruses
Shepardson D. 2020 Mar 2. U.S. agency investigating production of faulty coronavirus test kits.Reuters. [accessed 2020 Apr 3].
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-health-test-kits/u-s-agency-investigating-produc tion-of-faulty-coronavirus-test-kits-idUSKBN20P09Y
Symptoms of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19). 2020 Feb 29. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. [accessed 2020 Apr 3].
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/about/symptoms.html
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