> Here we show that SARS-CoV, but not HCoV-NL63, utilizes the enzymatic activity of the cysteine protease cathepsin L to infect ACE2-expressing cells.
1. We don't (yet) inherit antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 from our mothers.
2. SARS-CoV-2 has not been forced to make evolutionary sacrifices to evolve to escape immunity.
The virus has the freedom to become optimally bad and our immune systems were optimally naive.
Over time the warfare between our immune system and the virus should cause SARS-CoV-2 to look a lot more like HCoV-NL63.
That's a sufficient explanation of the differences in disease severity without having to troll through medical articles.
Why do we need evidence of why a lab would do research in viruses that is a danger to people in the country? It's pretty self-explanatory. ACE2 isn't specific to SARS-CoV-2 as your own links says.
The genii is out of the bottle so ending biological weapons research will never happen. If we aren't hit by a nation-state using biological warfare then we'll be hit by someone who does biochem in his garage for fun.
The best strategy is to advance the research while taking such steps as creating super-vaccines to make this type of biowarfare obsolete:
https://weather.com/en-IN/india/coronavirus/news/2021-04-21-...
But that also moves us one step closer to the "grey goo" scenario:
It should go without saying, but I'll add that I'm not at all commenting on which of you is right or wrong factually. But if you're the one who's right, then you should take better care with the truth, because stooping to cheap attacks discredits what you're saying, and one is responsible for how one handles the truth one's in possession of.
https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&sor...
Thank You.
Thanks dang, you help keep this place a truly special corner of the internet!
I stand by the science and I would love any evidence of something like natural zoonotic spillover.
This ACE2 binding is causing numerous issues, including damage to human heart, lung, kidney, and pancreatic cell death.
This is serious stuff. If anyone is looking at the "low" mortality rate, they are missing the big picture.
Role of angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) in COVID-19
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7356137/
The genetic structure of SARS‐CoV‐2 does not rule out a laboratory origin
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7744920/
SARS-CoV-2 infects human pancreatic β-cells and elicits β-cell impairment
https://www.cell.com/cell-metabolism/fulltext/S1550-4131(21)...