Two articles from Science:
Alpha, Beta, Delta, Omicron, BA.5—with each new SARS-CoV-2 variant or subvariant, the coronavirus seems to hone its ability to infect and spread between people. Although vaccines, drugs, and immunity from prior infections are allowing more and more people to dodge severe cases of COVID-19, the coronavirus has already killed more than 6 million people, according to the World Health Organization, and the true toll may exceed 18 million. Some virologists worry COVID-19 is here to stay, with SARS-CoV-2 potentially sickening people once or more a year as adenoviruses and other coronaviruses that cause the common cold do
One key to the virus’ success is its ability to neutralize the body’s immune response, thanks to its arsenal of proteins. Over the past 3 years, investigators have begun to explore those viral countermeasures. They’ve shown that many of SARS-CoV-2’s molecules manage to shield the virus—at least temporarily—from host immunity, allowing the invader to replicate and spread to more people.
Underpinning SARS-CoV-2’s counterattack is the versatile suite of proteins that it coerces infected cells to manufacture from its RNA code. Researchers still disagree about how many proteins the virus’ cellular victims make—estimates range from 26 to more than 30—but SARS-CoV-2 deploys more weapons than most other RNA viruses. The Ebola virus, for example, makes do with only seven proteins.
- another nail in the conspiracy coffin: evidence backs natural origin for pandemic --
The acrimonious debate over the origin of the COVID-19 pandemic flared up again this week with a report from an expert panel concluding that SARS-CoV-2 likely spread naturally in a zoonotic jump from an animal to humans—without help from a lab.
“Our paper recognizes that there are different possible origins, but the evidence towards zoonosis is overwhelming,” says coauthor Danielle Anderson, a virologist at the University of Melbourne. The report, which includes an analysis that found the peer-reviewed literature overwhelmingly supports the zoonotic hypotheses, appeared in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on 10 October 2022.
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