New SARS-Like Virus Infects Both Humans and Animals

I generally have to call into question the merits of an author when they unnecessarily distinguish between humans and other animals. Especially when that isn't the truly interesting item coming from the research.

The two genuinely interesting items from the research are that it uses a yet-to-be identified means to enter the host's cell. The other being that it can still infect any of the probable original hosts of the virus, even though that has not been previously documented in SARS.

Virus' being able to infect different species is not that new or note worthy and I believe the title of the article is therefore poorly thought-out and misleading. It's not even new or noteworthy for SARS which had the ability to infect multiple species.

Re: New SARS-Like Virus Infects Both Humans and Animals

#7

Post by freehunter » Wed, Dec 12, 2012, 8:53 PM UTC

>hCoV-EMC (short for human coronavirus-Erasmus Medical Center)

I understand that hCoV is a category of virus, but this strikes me as an unusual name. If this becomes a larger problem, people are not going to be calling it hCoV-EMC. hCoV would be incorrect, so would they rather people call it EMC and associate the name of the virus with the name of the medical facility that named it? Nobody called SARS SARS-hCoV, they called it SARS.

It just strikes me as an interesting name choice, and perhaps a bit narcissistic on the behalf of the research facility (not that narcissism isn't running rampant through science anyway).

Re: New SARS-Like Virus Infects Both Humans and Animals

#8

Post by Nrsolis » Wed, Dec 12, 2012, 8:53 PM UTC

endtwist wrote: post #3

Tangentially related, but reading this was very reminiscent of the movie Contagion: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1598778/ .

It's not said often enough, but Contagion is probably the best and most realistic movie to deal with the likely scenario of a deadly pandemic. Everything from the political and economic impact along with the roles of the scientists and field personnel were spot on.

I found it to be a riveting story.

Re: New SARS-Like Virus Infects Both Humans and Animals

#9

Post by lambersley » Wed, Dec 12, 2012, 9:18 PM UTC

newplagiarist wrote: post #6

chc wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is pedantry a good use of your time?

I generally have to call into question the merits of an author when they unnecessarily distinguish between humans and other animals. Especially when that isn't the truly interesting item coming from the research. The two genuinely interesting items from the research are that it uses a yet-to-be identified means to enter the host's cell. The other being that it can still infect any of the probable original hosts of th…

As a lay person, when I read of viruses, I look for ways I can contract such a thing. In the example of West Nile, I know to stay away from mosquito-prone places. For creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (variant of mad cow), I knew to cut down on my intake of beef. I think its important to distinguish between humans and other animals for this reason.

And having lived through SARS in Toronto, I can tell you that many people didn't have chicken on their tables during that summer.