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Summary of Viral by Matt Ridley & Alina Chan The Search for the Origin of Covid-19
Summary of Viral by Matt Ridley & Alina Chan The Search for the Origin of Covid-19
Summary of Viral by Matt Ridley & Alina Chan The Search for the Origin of Covid-19
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Summary of Viral by Matt Ridley & Alina Chan The Search for the Origin of Covid-19

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DISCLAIMER

This is NOT the original Matt Ridley & Alina Chan's book

This is a well-Detailed Summary of Viral by Matt Ridley & Alina Chan The Search for the Origin of Covid-19

_______________________________________

Viral by Dr Alina Chan and Matt Ridley examines the origins of SARS-CoV-2, the virus responsible for Covid-19. It details the evidence and investigates hypotheses for the virus origin, chief among them a potential laboratory leak or a natural spillover. Chan and Ridley give an insight into the proliferating pathogen research and virus hunting around the world.

LanguageEnglish
PublisherjUSTIN REESE
Release dateDec 8, 2021
ISBN9798201383695
Summary of Viral by Matt Ridley & Alina Chan The Search for the Origin of Covid-19

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    Summary of Viral by Matt Ridley & Alina Chan The Search for the Origin of Covid-19 - Justin Reese

    Prologue The mystery

    Alina Chan and Matt Ridley investigate how the Covid-19 pandemic began. Alina's life was changed after plunging into the question of SARS-CoV-2 in May 2020. Her social media has since been transformed into an open forum for scientists and internet sleuths. SARS-related coronaviruses showed little rapid adaptation in the early stages of the SARS epidemic. This implies that the source was almost certainly not via pangolins and probably not the wet market.

    It also suggests that the virus had been circulating in human beings for longer than expected. 'So Where Did This Virus Come From?' is Matt Russell's new book on the origin of SARS-CoV-2. He has written to Dr Zhan Zhan's coauthor Alina to discuss his suspicions that a laboratory leak could not be ruled out.

    The importance of finding the origin of Covid-19

    How the Covid-19 pandemic started may be the keenest mystery of our lifetime. The saga will forever punctuate the history of humanity. If we do not find out how it began, we are illequipped to know when, where and how the next pandemic may start. Pneumonia of unknown cause was sending people to hospital in Wuhan, a city of eleven million people on the Yangtze river in central China. New antiviral drugs were tested.

    But none of this was enough to prevent a pandemic, as we now know. The official search for the origin of Covid-19 has yielded no smoking gun. Tens of thousands of animals, both wild and domesticated, have been sampled across China. One of the most tantalising pieces of the puzzle was a medical thesis unearthed by an anonymous Twitter user.

    The copper mine

    In 2012, six men were admitted to a hospital in Kunming, south-west China. All had recently worked in the same mine clearing out bat guano. Doctors tested them for HIV, cytomegalovirus, Epstein-Barr Virus, Japanese and other viruses. Dr Zhong Nanshan was working at the Guangzhou Institute of Respiratory Diseases in 2002. He is well known in China as one of the heroes of the SARS epidemic. Dr Zhong's treatment, based on cortisone and oxygen, saved many lives.

    An abandoned copper mine

    Mojiang County is hilly, heavily wooded and sparsely populated. It lies six hours south of Kunming, not far from the border with Laos. A short distance from here are the remains of an abandoned copper mine. The location of the mine has never been officially confirmed. John Sudworth and his team had to return the same day after first attempt to retrace steps of virologists who visited the Mojiang mine.

    They were stopped by angry men in 4x4s and warned 'they would turn violent' if they did not leave. Satellite images show what appears to be the entrance of a horizontal tunnel, known as an 'adit' or 'drift'. Today the site is blanketed with greenery but satellite images show a well-used dirt road leading to a set of buildings. In April 2012, a group of men cleared bat droppings from an abandoned mine in China's Yunnan province. The guano trade is a lucrative one in some parts of the world.

    A medical thesis

    The Mojiang miners had been infected by a SARS-related coronavirus (SARSrCoV) from bats. The thesis was only discovered and shared on Twitter in May 2020 by the anonymous user called the Seeker. Dr Li Xu's 2013 medical thesis states that tests found IgM antibodies for SARS virus. IgG antibodies are produced during the initial infection but persist for months and sometimes years as a form of protection in case the body encounters a similar pathogen again.

    Virologists in the mine

    Three teams of virologists visited the mine seeking the cause

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