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New coronavirus can spread between humans, but started in a wildlife market

nationalgeographic.com

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Re: New coronavirus can spread between humans, but started in a wildlife market

#161
post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’ve read virology reports that the virus originated most likely from bats but through an intermediary source — as to which animal, that’s unknown. Another thing I’ve been pondering is since bats have been the source of deadly, infectious diseases in humans for so long, that’s where the historical myth of vampires and the living dead come from.

There’s plenty of actual research into the ancient origin of vampires you can read without resorting to baseless speculation. There is no single myth or origin and eastern europe has no vampire bats—in fact, the bats are named after the myth. The connection is likely due to them simply being nocturnal. EDIT: My tone came off as completely dismissing your thinking, which I don't mean to, I just mean to say that there'…

Bat "bites" are only half the story. Bat scratches are really nasty. In ancient times they would look like bites and most always would become infected. Even today, in much of the world (ie usa) any contact with wild bat should be taken very seriously. The link between bats and disease is no myth.

Re: New coronavirus can spread between humans, but started in a wildlife market

#162
post #146
post #21

From what I've read it came from bats. Most probably bats being eaten.[1] Bats have been the source of at least 4 pandemics. It's interesting to note that current coronavirus spreading in China and the SARS outbreak of 2003 have two things in common: Both are from the coronavirus family, and both were passed from animals to humans in a wet market.[2] I tried to put together a page for coronavirus in China here where…

It was reported in the BBC today that while SARS originated in bats, the vector for humans were a species of cats that got the disease from the bats. For coronavirus what we know so far is that it originated in a seafood market, but as to what species was eaten that is speculation at this point.

Comparison between "Bat SARS-like coronavirus" and the "Wuhan seafood market pneumonia virus" seems to show a 100% match:

https://blast.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/Blast.cgi?RID=2PUA1EJK114&CMD...

Bat SARS-like coronavirus WIV1 has been known since at least 2013.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bat_SARS-like_coronavirus_WIV1

Re: New coronavirus can spread between humans, but started in a wildlife market

#163

How common is for SARS coronaviruses to share the same envelope proteins? I downloaded 200 CoV envelope proteins from NCBI, and I couldn't find any pair of identical proteins. As someone unfamiliar with virology, I'm curious if there are any explanations for how come the protein envelope of 2019-nCoV[1] is the same as the protein envelope described by the Institute of Military Medicine Nanjing Command 2 years ago in…

Comparison between "Bat SARS-like coronavirus" and the "Wuhan seafood market pneumonia virus" seems to show a 100% match:

https://blast.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/Blast.cgi?RID=2PUA1EJK114&CMD...

Bat SARS-like coronavirus WIV1 has been known since at least 2013.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bat_SARS-like_coronavirus_WIV1

Re: New coronavirus can spread between humans, but started in a wildlife market

#164
post #21

From what I've read it came from bats. Most probably bats being eaten.[1] Bats have been the source of at least 4 pandemics. It's interesting to note that current coronavirus spreading in China and the SARS outbreak of 2003 have two things in common: Both are from the coronavirus family, and both were passed from animals to humans in a wet market.[2] I tried to put together a page for coronavirus in China here where…

The Vice article that is cited by sdiw doesn't mention that the virus came from "bats being eaten.[1]" The article does state "new report points to the original animal source: bats" but nothing about bats being eaten. Maybe I missed something, please let me know. :) The National Geographic article states the following: > "[T]he highest prevalence of coronaviruses tend to be extruded by animals through feces, or guano…

Could be even simpler? Someone is going out and killing the bats right? They are physically handling dead bats in bulk, why can’t that be enough?

Re: New coronavirus can spread between humans, but started in a wildlife market

#165

How common is for SARS coronaviruses to share the same envelope proteins? I downloaded 200 CoV envelope proteins from NCBI, and I couldn't find any pair of identical proteins. As someone unfamiliar with virology, I'm curious if there are any explanations for how come the protein envelope of 2019-nCoV[1] is the same as the protein envelope described by the Institute of Military Medicine Nanjing Command 2 years ago in…

Comparison between "Bat SARS-like coronavirus" and the "Wuhan seafood market pneumonia virus" seems to show a 100% match: https://blast.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/Blast.cgi?RID=2PUA1EJK114&CMD... Bat SARS-like coronavirus WIV1 has been known since at least 2013. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bat_SARS-like_coronavirus_WIV1

Yes, these are the two strains I was referring to in my original post. They share the same sequence of 75 aminoacids for their envelope proteins despite differing slightly in the nucleotide sequences.

Re: New coronavirus can spread between humans, but started in a wildlife market

#166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

- Wearing masks is normal because of air pollution. A lot of people wear really loose non-N95/n99 masks though, but there's definitely an uptick in people wearing better masks because of the virus. - An acquantince of mine went to a supermarket today. Everything seems fine (they live not too far from Beijing where there are confirmed cases). - There are still people entering Wuhan to see family. ( https://youtu.be/cm…

> An acquantince of mine went to a supermarket today. Everything seems fine What would it look like if it wasn't fine...?

Massive shortages from people mass panic buying?

Re: New coronavirus can spread between humans, but started in a wildlife market

#167

Comparison between "Bat SARS-like coronavirus" and the "Wuhan seafood market pneumonia virus" seems to show a 100% match: https://blast.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/Blast.cgi?RID=2PUA1EJK114&CMD... Bat SARS-like coronavirus WIV1 has been known since at least 2013. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bat_SARS-like_coronavirus_WIV1 In 2019, CBC reported "Canadian government scientist under investigation trained staff at Level 4 lab in C…

Sorry, this is wild speculation, not fact. The “100% match” you cited is for one protein (and a small one, at that - just 75 amino acids long) which proves absolutely nothing (individual proteins can often be highly conserved - and amino acid alignment doesn’t guarantee that the underlying genes are even the same).

SARS and MERS, highly similar viruses which emerged over the last 20 years, have a very similar emergence pattern to the new nCoV virus. Wuhan has a seafood market which has been known to house animals other than seafood. Initial cases were from those seafood markets. There’s quite literally no evidence to suggest that the Wuhan lab had anything to do with this outbreak.

Re: New coronavirus can spread between humans, but started in a wildlife market

#168
post #22

>I think this is just a massive overcorrection due to China's 2003 SARS outbreak but we'll start seeing more and more of these large scale quarantines as our civilization comes to terms with the realities of cheap air travel. I don't think is an "overcorrection". Lockdown is a top-level warning. Most Chinese people have no so much medical common sense, only a warning like this can stop them from trying to return home…

> Most Chinese people have no so much medical common sense

You are displaying your ignorance here, with this statement.

What is your quantification of "most"? Is it 75%? 90%? 95%? or 99%?

Do you know "most" Chinese people? There are 1.4 billion people in China. Can you even fathom that number? Have you ever been to China? Do you even speak the language to make such a judgment?

Let's be scientific here.

The reality is that only a handful of people need to get infected, and they will transmit the virus to others. At which point, it gets out of control.

The lockdown is necessary to limit the transmission. To starve out the virus. It needs human hosts to breed and to propagate itself. And this probably serves as a more cautionary approach, to tell people to maintain their distance away from others.

The likely result of this, is that the central China government will clamp down on wet markets, which may have been the breeding ground of such viruses.

Re: New coronavirus can spread between humans, but started in a wildlife market

#169
post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This seems rather unlikely. We have the genome sequence of the Wuhan seafood market coronavirus, and it's consistent with it being a so far unknown relative of the SARS virus and other coronaviruses (see my other comment where I have posted links to the sequence alignments). So did the Wuhan BSL-4 lab virologists discover a new relative of the SARS virus, study it in their lab, didn't publish it, then accidentally se…

Does that contradict the idea that a similar virus was found and then modifed in the lab?

So...the Wuhan scientists are modifying viruses in their BSL-4 lab (which is no joke when it comes to safety standards) and then just letting these things escape? Sorry, that’s very far fetched. Why can’t people accept that a virus like this could evolve naturally?

Re: New coronavirus can spread between humans, but started in a wildlife market

#170
post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Anecdotal (not official) reports suggest as many as 100,000 infections in Wuhan area. There are claims the virus may be spread through eyes as well as inhalation. Additional unsubstantiated claims suggest low to no fever during incubation period, making detection difficult. The most sensationalist claim making the rounds is that a known Wuhan area PLA biolab may have failed to contain this pathogen. In the end none o…

Is transmission through eyes that odd? The common cold already is. You rub your eyes, the virus enters your tears, which drain to your nose.

It matters because face masks are not enough to prevent transmission, which matters relative to the common cold only because this virus kills. The common cold does not.
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