SARS-CoV -- 2005 -- Flashback -- September 15, 2020

A reader sent me a ZeroHedge link suggesting that the Covid-19 virus was engineered in a Chinese lab. That may be. Time will tell.

The science is fascinating. I'm waiting for a trusted geneticist to weigh in on this with either a long, long essay or a book, discussing corona viruses, in general, and then all the research that has gone one with regard to coronavirus.

But the "definitive" story can't be published for several years; anything published now is way too soon.

I suppose a essay on coronavirus research could be published now, but the Wuhan flu -- still too early to really know.

I "track" the story at this link, on the sidebar at the right, at the very bottom (although I occasionally modify the sorting of links at the sidebar). 

Of the many articles I've come across, this one continues to be the most fascinating: Chloroquine is a potent inhibitor of SARS coronavirus infection and spread. Link here. 

It's too bad that "chloroquine" has become politicized. 

I think a lot of folks are under the impression that regardless of whether this virus was engineered in a lab or not, research in this area is relatively new. This family of viruses has been around "forever" and research has been going on in this area for many decades. 

Remember this? Posted back on May 10, 2020:

By the way, corona virus has an interesting connection to North Dakota:

Coronaviruses were first discovered in the 1930s when an acute respiratory infection of domesticated chickens was shown to be caused by infectious bronchitis virus (IBV). Arthur Schalk and M. C. Hawn described in 1931 a new respiratory infection of chickens in North Dakota.

So, again, back to the "chloroquine" article. 

First, coronavirus is not a rare bug. It's part of the largest class of viruses.

Second, that study was published by a most respected agency: the NIH.

Third, that study was published back in 2005. One has to assume the backstory to this research extended back at least ten years, which would take it to 1995. Even if articles had not been published, people "in the know" would have been quite aware of coronavirus.

More later.

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Other Studies

Gene sequence:

• complete genome sequence of a novel coronavirus, Coronavirus HKU1, January, 2005; ncbi.nlm.nih.gov;
  

Blood types, ACE2:

• technologynetworks, June 19, 2020;
• thescientist, June 8, 2020;
• medicalexpress, TLR7 on the X chromosome; July 24, 2020; TLR: toll-like receptor
• a novel bat coronavirus closely related to Covid-19 contains natural insertions, Current Biology, newscientist, June 8, 2020