The evidence which suggests that Covid-19 is not a naturally evolved virus [pdf]

Re:The evidence which suggests that Covid-19 is not a natura... by sudosysgen on Saturday July 18, 2020 @01:55AM (#23879361)

The issue is that SARS-CoV-2 is much, much less powerful. So that doesn't really follow.

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Re:The evidence which suggests that Covid-19 is not a natura... by SomeoneFromCA on Saturday July 18, 2020 @08:00AM (#23880797)

Compared to what? Not much is known how powerful that chimeric virus was compared to CoV-2. Could please elaborate where did you get that notion from&

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Re:The evidence which suggests that Covid-19 is not a natura... by tomp on Saturday July 18, 2020 @02:24AM (#23879477)

What do you mean by this? I heard that it has incredible affinity to ACE receptors, which is why it sprrads so quickly (combined with asymptomatic infection)

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Re:The evidence which suggests that Covid-19 is not a natura... by sudosysgen on Saturday July 18, 2020 @02:33AM (#23879515)

Yes, it binds to ACE2 receptors more strongly, but once you're infected it's about one order of magnitude less severe.

To note, receptor affinity is not the only mechanism by which infectivity is modulated. You would already expect that a virus that is ten times less severe would spread more easily, and SARS was already able to spread efficiently through air at great distances, so it seems likely that me that receptor affinity is stronger but that other mechanism are weaker. This would explain the fact that it is less severe and not much more infectious.

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