Live data from Hacker News

The virus that causes the common cold can effectively boot the Covid virus out

bbc.com

111–120 of 309 posts

Re: The virus that causes the common cold can effectively boot the Covid virus out

#111
Why is so much in this article contradictory? It opens by saying viruses allow or inhibit other viruses by way of differing methods of entering cells but only a few paragraphs later says the difference is entirely due to triggering an immune response.

Further experiments showed rhinovirus was triggering an immune response inside the infected cells, which blocked the ability of Sars-CoV-2 to make copies of itself.

What? What defenses do cells have after already being infected with viral RNA?

"We could see surges in flu. We could see surges in other respiratory viruses and other respiratory pathogens," she said,

Why? Why does covid mean we're going to see unusual winter surges in non-covid diseases?

Re: The virus that causes the common cold can effectively boot the Covid virus out

#112
I always wondered why religious pilgrimages and retreats where so common back in the history. The motivation is often some sort of healing. Sunshine, Mountain or Forest air is described in literature as things to seek when sick. Just curious if for example molds found in forest air, might play a similar function. Or perhaps being in close contact being exposed to bacteria from other people. Or if viruses can swap genetic code, is there some pathway through which our immune system can import antibodies or genetic information from other people we are in contact with through pheromones to boost its own defences. Perhaps its the drinking of water from new sources along the journey that has benefits. Why does fiji water taste so much better than other waters.

Re: The virus that causes the common cold can effectively boot the Covid virus out

#113
post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You haven't mentioned social behavioral change in your speculation about the decimated 2020-2021 flu season. I'd wager that has a very large part in why the flu hasn't spread: everyone is socially distanced, remote, masked, extra hygienic, and extra aware of illness.

I didn't mention it because it's not addressed by this article, which is specifically about competitive inhibition. That said, if you're going to claim that all of these things we have done have eliminated the flu, you should take at least a few moments to reflect on the fact that they have done ~nothing to rhinovirus.

> That said, if you're going to claim that all of these things we have done have eliminated the flu, you should take at least a few moments to reflect on the fact that they have done ~nothing to rhinovirus.

Why do you keep saying these measures have done nothing to rhinovirus?

The link you've shared does not support that. It shows relative percentages - and you're confusing that for absolute infection counts.

Unless you also believe that 60% of the population has a stomach virus on a daily basis (data from their other chart).

Re: The virus that causes the common cold can effectively boot the Covid virus out

#114
post #5

Another reason I personally would not like to get vaccinated. Nature and evolution solve all problems sooner or later.

Unfortunately for us, nature and evolution "solving problems" frequently involves us all just dying and/or Earth spending a long period of time as a magma ocean and then several aeons as a hot rock.

"The planet is fine. It's the people that're fucked!" -- Carlin

Re: The virus that causes the common cold can effectively boot the Covid virus out

#116
post #30

All human coronavirus diseases, including COVID-19, are colds. Always have been. This one from 1890 might have been caused by OC43: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1889–1890_pandemic

This is a pretty interesting hypothesis. Maybe there’s nothing really special about SARS type coronaviruses besides their novelty. Is it possible that all coronaviruses, including the ones that cause a common cold, have a similar morbidity profile to COVID? Very minor infection in the young or those with previous exposure, extremely deadly in the old and naive. Except we all catch a bunch of colds in childhood, so no…

Yes that's possible, at least for some other coronavirus. HCoV-OC43 is an endemic betacoronavirus very similar to SARS-CoV-2. It typically causes common cold symptoms in healthy people but is extremely dangerous to the elderly.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2095096/

Re: The virus that causes the common cold can effectively boot the Covid virus out

#117

Why is so much in this article contradictory? It opens by saying viruses allow or inhibit other viruses by way of differing methods of entering cells but only a few paragraphs later says the difference is entirely due to triggering an immune response. Further experiments showed rhinovirus was triggering an immune response inside the infected cells, which blocked the ability of Sars-CoV-2 to make copies of itself. Wha…

Cells have ways to detect non-self RNA and react to it, like stopping protein expression and releasing alarm chemicals to call in immune system cells. Viruses of course try to block these cell defenses.

This is actually a big problem for mRNA vaccines, which are also foreign RNAs, and to overcome it for example Pfizer/Moderna use unnatural RNA bases, among other things, to bypass these detection mechanisms.

It's not exactly clear how cells can distinguish self/non-self RNA, some markers are known, like different RNA cappings, different letter frequencies, some chemical modifications.

Re: The virus that causes the common cold can effectively boot the Covid virus out

#118
post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And btw I understand what manslaughter is but again I'm not a lawyer. Refer me to any case or cases where someone is guilty of spreading a virus without intent(Involuntary).

First google result: https://www.irishtimes.com/news/crime-and-law/courts/circuit... . It's not difficult to find more examples. If you know or could reasonably suspect you have a lethal virus and still go out without taking proper precautions then that is absolutely something people have sued over many many times.

It is unclear whether defendant was aware of having a HIV. It seems like he had no intent of spreading a disease and had limited or no knowledge of having it.

"I didn’t really do it intentionally but when we were drunk it ended up happening”."

How the case ended?

Re: The virus that causes the common cold can effectively boot the Covid virus out

#119
post #32

There has been a lot of (IMHO unsupported) speculation that the almost complete eradication of influenza in 2020 was due to competitive inhibition from SARS-CoV2. However, data I've seen suggests that rhinovirus is still circulating at its usual rate [1]. If it's true that rhinovirus is such a potent inhibitor of SARS-CoV2, at the very least, the interplay between SARS-CoV2 and other respiratory viruses is non-trivia…

You haven't mentioned social behavioral change in your speculation about the decimated 2020-2021 flu season. I'd wager that has a very large part in why the flu hasn't spread: everyone is socially distanced, remote, masked, extra hygienic, and extra aware of illness.

everyone is socially distanced, remote, masked, extra hygienic, and extra aware of illness.

Flu has been eradicated by lockdown, but lockdown must continue because COVID has not. That appears to be the policy right now.

Re: The virus that causes the common cold can effectively boot the Covid virus out

#120
post #19
post #5

Another reason I personally would not like to get vaccinated. Nature and evolution solve all problems sooner or later.

You do understand that nature/evolution's plan or 'solution' can be to eradicate you?

Should I cry that mother nature doesn't like me? It's not like I can do something about natural disaster(hurricane, flood, earthquake, volcano eruption etc.) killing me.
Post reply on HN