Coronavirus is not a particular virus, but a group or family of viruses. There are seven known coronaviruses that infect humans. The first was discovered in 1965. This new genus (type) of virus was named “corona,” which is Latin for “crown,” because of its crown-like appearance. Four of the seven known coronaviruses—229E, OC43, NL63, and HUK1—cause mild respiratory infection, like the common cold. The other three viruses are more sever respiratory infections.
The first of the three more sever coronaviruses was SARS, which stands for Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome. It originated in southern China in 2002 and spread to 28 countries. There were more than 8,000 reported cases and 774 reported deaths.
The second of the three more sever coronaviruses was MERS, which stands for Middle East Respiratory Syndrome. It originated in Saudi Arabia in 2012. Almost all of its 2,500 cases were reported in people living in or traveling to the Middle East. Although it was less contagious than SARS, it was more deadly, killing 858 people, which gave it a frightening 34.32% death rate.
The final of the three more sever coronaviruses is SARS-CoV-2, which stands for Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome CoronaVirus 2. Like the original SARS coronavirus, it too originated in China, but in central, not southern China. Furthermore, its origin appears to be quite ominous, since it was either accidentally or intentionally released from a lab in Wuhan, where the communist Chinese were possibly weaponizing coronaviruses through gain-of-function research. Adding to the ominousness of its origin is the growing evidence that this gain-of-function research in Wuhan was being funded with American taxpayer dollars, despite our government’s former moratorium on such hazardous and high-risk research.
While SARS-CoV-2 is the name of the virus, the name of the disease that the virus causes is COVID-19, which is an acronym that stands for COronaVIrus Disease of 2019. A virus is the simplest of cells. It is nothing but a piece of genetic code, a strand of RNA or DNA, encased in protein. Researchers actually debate whether a virus is even “alive,” since it needs to enter a living cell to perform its only function, which is to replicate.
Once a virus invades a living cell or host cell within your body, it replicates, producing more virus. After replication is complete, the viruses are released from the host cell into your body. Sometimes a virus can remain dormant after replication and not multiply further, but when it does continue to replicate and multiply it eventually invokes a response from your immune system, which produces the symptoms by which the disease the virus causes becomes diagnosable.
The symptoms of a virus are actually caused by your immune system’s attempt to shed the virus from your body. For instance, vomiting, diarrhea, sweating, coughing, and a runny nose are all means by which your immune system sheds viruses. They are also means by which you spread viruses to others. Still, it is the manifestation of symptoms and their consequences, which may be either mild or severe, that demonstrate the virus is no longer dormant, but has induced the disease it causes.
One of the most baffling mysteries confounding modern-day medicine is how viruses can remain dormant in some and result in disease in others. SARS-CoV-2 is a most mysterious virus, not only because it can be tragically lethal to some and surprisingly benign to others, but also because more than half of all transmissions are credited to those infected with the virus, but not afflicted with the disease; that is, the asymptomatic.
A possible explanation for this seemingly inexplicable phenomenon may be found in an investigation into the virus’ viral isolate. It must be noted, however, that such an investigation will inevitably prove most exasperating, especially when one discovers that there is no universally accepted definition for “viral isolate” in the virology community. Consequently, some scientists insist that the SARS-CoV-2 virus has ben identified and isolated, while others insist that it has been neither identified nor isolated. It all boils down to whether or not the claimed identification and isolation of SARS-CoV-2 meets the definition and criteria of differing scientists with various understandings of a viral isolate.
Traditionally, a viral isolate, according to Koch’s Postulates, which was long considered the gold standard of isolating and identifying diseases, was understood to be a pure sample of an actual specimen of a viral pathogen that proves the presence of a virus beyond a shadow of a doubt. This was accomplished by Koch’s four postulates: (1) The microbe had to be found in abundance in an infected subject (2) The microbe had to be isolated from the infected subject and grown in a pure culture (3) The microbe grown in a pure culture had to cause disease in a healthy organism, and finally (4) The microbe had to be isolated again from the infected experimental host and prove to be identical to the original specimen taken from the initial infected subject.
When it comes to isolating and identifying the pathogen or microbe of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, no specific specimen has been found. Instead, scientists have supposedly isolated and identified it by using genome sequencing. As the CDC explains it, scientists have taken 37 base pairs of the virus’ 30,000 base pairs and put them into a computer, which filled in the blanks; that is, the rest of the base pairs, from a digital genomic database. Thus, we really don’t have a viral isolate, but genome sequences that have been computer generated by researchers, in order to fill in all of the blanks. Some scientists believe that modern-medicine’s genome sequencing is superior to Koch’s antiquated Postulates and has indeed isolated and identified the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Others argue that the virus has been nether isolated nor identified, but that all we have is a a digital, theoretical abstraction made on a computer from a genomic database.
Having no pathognomonic sign from the virus itself; that is, no particular sign that proves the presence of the SARS-CoV-2 virus beyond a shadow of a doubt, scientists have resorted to what is known as silico sequences. This method of identifying and isolating a virus is performed on a computer, in order to generate a simulated “pathognomonic sign” to detect the virus’ presence. While some scientists insist that a computerized pathognomonic sign or viral isolate is just as good or even superior to a traditional one, others argue that it is neither a pathognomonic sign or a viral isolate, but nothing more than a computerized hypothesis, by which COVID-19 diagnoses are being made.
Unfortunately, in light of the above, there are a few scientists and physicians who have gone so far as to make an outlandish claim; namely, that the SARS-CoV-2 virus doesn’t even exist, but is merely a computer generated chimera. That this virus exist is indisputable, proven beyond a shadow of a doubt by the multitude of people all over our world who’ve been infected and afflicted by it. However, that its pathognomonic sign or viral isolate, which proves its presence beyond a shadow of a doubt, has been isolated and identified, is still an open question being debated by differing scientists with various ideas about what constitutes a pathognomonic sign or viral isolate.