Interesting facts about SARS corona viruses

By Mathias Scholz

A new virus has been keeping the world under its spell since the beginning of 2020. The starting point of the pandemic of the respiratory disease COVID-19 ("Coronavirus Disease 2019"), or "Corona Pandemic" for short, caused by this new virus was the city of Wuhan in China. Initially treated as a local phenomenon, this new viral disease quickly developed into an epidemic in China, which was difficult to control due to the sheer number of people affected and the specific symptoms alone (severe bilateral pneumonia and acute lung failure - hence SARS = Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome). Due to today's global networking and the rapid accessibility of almost every major city in the world via air travel, it was only a matter of time before the virus and the associated lung disease spread all over the world within a very short time.  In this way, COVID-19 developed into the third major pandemic of the 21st century alongside the SARS pandemic of 2002/2003 and the swine flu (2009/10).  The devastating socio-economic effects alone are far from assessable in their entirety and will probably lead to a break not only in economic thinking but also in the way people live in many countries. The pandemic is a sudden demonstration of the disadvantages of a global world based on the division of labor, which are often ignored in the general discussion, and which only really become apparent as soon as there are crisis developments. One need only think of the temporary or permanent interruption of supply chains or, more generally, of the obstacles to the exchange of goods and services as-sociated with pandemic measures. In addition, there are also the effects that directly or indirectly affect every-one, such as the loss or restriction of freedom of move-ment due to quarantine measures, loss of income due to the economic crisis caused by the pandemic, and per-sonal "inconveniences" such as a general obligation to wear masks. Since the virus disease is also very selective (high risk of older people with previous illnesses) and many, especially younger people and healthy middle-aged people survive an infection with the corona virus in most cases (but not always!) without symptoms or only with slight flu-like symptoms, the acceptance of measures to contain the pandemic will predictably decrease as the pandemic progresses. This leads to new problems and challenges that politicians in particular must face. It can only be hoped that it will be possible to develop vaccines as quickly as possible that will provide the most durable immunity possible against the corona-virus SARS-CoV-2 and that are available worldwide at reasonable conditions. But one thing already seems to be emerging. The virus will certainly - similar to the flu (in-fluenza) - accompany us for a long time to come. 
The topic of this book, however, is not the disease COVID-19 and its epidemiology, but the virus itself. Nowadays, everyone has the word "virus" in their mouths, but what viruses are actually about, how they are structured and how they "work" exactly, there is of-ten only rudimentary knowledge about this (unless you are a doctor or biologist). This "knowledge gap" is what this book is intended to help close in an entertaining way on a popular scientific level.
 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Mathias Scholz
• Release date: Oct 15, 2020
• ISBN: 9781393655336

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Copyright 2020 Mathias Scholz, builderall-power.de

Mathias Scholz

Zittau, Germany

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Interesting facts about SARS corona viruses

Mathias Scholz

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction

A brief history of viruses

The smallpox vaccination

Bacteria as triggers for infectious diseases

Rabies

Plants also suffer from infectious diseases

Bacteriophages

Electron Microscopy

Molecular Genetics

Functionality of viruses

Detection of even smaller infectious particles than viruses

Modern Virology and Viral Infectious Diseases

Design and structure of viruses

Virions

Capsids

Peplomere

Genetic Molecules

Differences from living cells

Some basics ...

What are proteins?

DNA and RNA

Transcription and Translation

Replication

Corona viruses

How Corona Viruses work

Replication cycle

Adsorption

COVID-19 clinical picture

Infection and incubation time

Symptoms of severe corona disease

Origin of the SARS coronavirus

Natural reservoir of the SARS virus

Rumor mill

Danger of new zoonoses

Pandemic spread of COVID-19

Was there a historical predecessor of COVID-19?

Virus defense

Immune system

Viral antigens and their antibodies

Antibody-based vaccines

The fast solution - Monoclonal antibodies

Gene-based vaccines

Vector viruses

Test procedure for the coronavirus

Overview of test methods

PCR = Polymerase Chain Reaction

Serological tests (ELISA test procedure)

Antigen tests

Outlook

Introduction

Anew virus has been keeping the world under its spell since the beginning of 2020. The starting point of the pandemic of the respiratory disease COVID-19 (Coronavirus Disease 2019), or Corona Pandemic for short, caused by this new virus was the city of Wuhan in China. Initially treated as a local phenomenon, this new viral disease quickly developed into an epidemic in China, which was difficult to control due to the sheer number of people affected and the specific symptoms alone (severe bilateral pneumonia and acute lung failure - hence SARS = Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome ). Due to today's global networking and the rapid accessibility of almost every major city in the world via air travel, it was only a matter of time before the virus and the associated lung disease spread all over the world within a very short time.  In this way, COVID-19 developed into the third major pandemic of the 21st century alongside the SARS pandemic of 2002/2003 and the swine flu (2009/10).  The devastating socio-economic effects alone are far from assessable in their entirety and will probably lead to a break not only in economic thinking but also in the way people live in many countries. The pandemic is a sudden demonstration of the disadvantages of a global world based on the division of labor, which are often ignored in the general discussion, and which only really become apparent as soon as there are crisis developments. One need only think of the temporary or permanent interruption of supply chains or, more generally, of the obstacles to the exchange of goods and services associated with pandemic measures. In addition, there are also the effects that directly or indirectly affect everyone, such as the loss or restriction of freedom of movement due to quarantine measures, loss of income due to the economic crisis caused by the pandemic, and personal inconveniences such as a general obligation to wear masks. Since the virus disease is also very selective (high risk of older people with previous illnesses) and many, especially younger people and healthy middle-aged people survive an infection with the corona virus in most cases (but not always!) without symptoms or only with slight flu-like symptoms, the acceptance of measures to contain the pandemic will predictably decrease as the pandemic progresses. This leads to new problems and challenges that politicians in particular must face. It can only be hoped that it will be possible to develop vaccines as quickly as possible that will provide the most durable immunity possible against the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 and that are available worldwide at reasonable conditions. But one thing already seems to be emerging. The virus will certainly - similar to the flu (influenza) - accompany us for a long time to come.

The topic of this book, however, is not the disease COVID-19 and its epidemiology, but the virus itself. Nowadays, everyone has the word virus in their mouths, but what viruses are actually about, how they are structured and how they work exactly, there is often only rudimentary knowledge about this (unless you are a doctor or biologist). This knowledge gap is what this book is intended to help close in an entertaining way on a popular scientific level.

Note:

It is not always possible to explain all technical terms that play a role in biology or virology in context. So if you are not familiar with one or the other term, you should at least have a look at Wikipedia.

A brief history of viruses

At the beginning of the scientific discipline known as virology was the English country doctor Edward Anthony Jenner (1749-1823). In the 18th and 19th century, in which Edward Jenner lived, smallpox (or leaf pox) was one of the most terrible and widespread infectious diseases, which reached virtually every corner of the world by shipping. Already in the 16th century many millions of the native Indians in America alone fell victim to the disease introduced by the Spaniards. It is estimated that in the course of time about 40% - 50% (some authors estimate even more) of the indigenous population of America fell victim to smallpox. This was simply because there was virtually no immunity to the disease in the native American population at the time, while the European conquerors achieved a relatively high level of infestation through earlier smallpox epidemics and were therefore less susceptible to smallpox than the Indians.

Smallpox lesions on face (AFIP 551882), National Museum of… | Flickr

Face disfigured by pox pustules

In Europe at that time, smallpox was one of the most common causes of death in young children. Every 10th child who fell ill usually died of it. However, once the disease had been overcome (like the young Johann Wolfgang Goethe or even Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart), one could enjoy lifelong immunity.

The smallpox vaccination

In addition to smallpox , there is also a rather harmless variant, which is called cowpox because it mainly affects cattle. However, it can also jump over to humans, whereby understandably then especially those are endangered who have to do physically - e.g. as milkers - with ill cows. What Edward Jenner (and not only him) noticed was the fact that milkers who had survived a cowpox infection are obviously immune to the real