Where Does The New Coronavirus Come From?

The new coronavirus doesn't come from Mars. Neither is it a biological weapon. It comes from China where it was bred by Mother Nature that very much likes to play with viruses.

Image by Miguel Á. Padriñán from Pixabay

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Do Not Listen To Fake News

You can bet that we are going to be hearing about the new coronavirus virus COVID-19 for a long time. Probably more than we would like. But, information is useful and it helps. But not all information helps. Lately, a lot of fake news that spread misinformation about the origin of the coronavirus that ended with a not so great name of SARS-CoV-2. Awful name.

The thing is, Internet trolls would love to change reality and thus are trying to fog the origin and how the coronavirus pandemic got created with many fake stories such as – the Americans made, the Jews made it, it is a biological weapon, or even claims that it is extraterrestrial in origin.

Kristian G. Andersen from an important American research institute Scripps Research Institute in La Jolle, California and his coworkers recently published a study in the journal Nature Medicine that was exactly about all this. So, where exactly does the virus responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic come from?

The Seventh “Human” Coronavirus

From the very beginning when the new virus appeared in Wuhan people speculate wherefrom does it come. What you need to remember is that the virus doesn't exist in a vacuum. It isn't the only coronavirus out there. Actually, there are hundreds or more likely thousands of them out there. This one is actually the seventh coronavirus that can infect humans. SARS-CoV, MERS-CoV & SARS-CoV-2 are all quite dangerous that can cause serious diseases and have a pretty high mortality rate.

On the other hand, coronaviruses HKU1, NL63, OC43 & 229E cause less dangerous and sometimes even harmless infections of the respiratory tract and some you might have even had in the past. They are responsible for about 10 – 15 % of colds all over the world – mostly in the winter. All these viruses are relatives and have very similar RNA sequences. So, this makes it pretty obvious that none of them came somewhere from space. Just that Mother Nature is one heck of a killer.

Andersen and his colleagues analyzed everything we know about the origin of SARS-CoV-2 and based on comparative genome analysis. And this RNA sequence comparing definitely proves that it isn't extraterrestrial nor is it a beast that escaped a laboratory. It is just a normal coronavirus that just is very well evolved to spread and kill.

Mutation In The Spike

The researchers show us that there are two important parts in the RNA sequence of SARS-CoV-2 that make him such a dangerous enemy. First, thanks to a mutation in the receptor-binding domain (RBD) of the sub-unit S1 of the spike protein the virus is capable of very effectively bind to the ACE2 receptor in human cells. And not only humans also to ferrets, cats, and other animals. Interestingly, computer simulations tell us that the RBDs of this coronavirus should not be so effective at binding to human ACE2 receptors.

But that isn't that much of a mystery. Likely this mutation happened quite recently as a result of natural selection. Nonetheless, it is a great piece of evidence that SARS-CoV-2 wasn't made artificially. If anyone made this virus then he would have most likely used structures that computers models predict.

Polybasic Cleavage Site

The second important feature of the new virus's RNA sequence is a polybasic cleavage site. This can again be found on the spike protein between its S1 and S2 sub-units. This place is targeted by the furin enzyme and other human proteases. Once they get there they get split – something the virus needs. This cleavage site is highly connected with the infectibility of the virus and with the range of hosts it can infect. The closest relatives of the coronavirus do not have such a cleavage site but for example, it can be found in the HKU1 coronavirus.

So far, we do not have detailed information on the consequences of such a cleavage site but previous research show us that whenever such cleavage sites appear on – for example – the hemagglutinin protein of the bird flu H5N1 it makes quite normal flu with low pathogenicity into a killer.

Andersen's team is convinced that if the coronavirus was a result of genetic engineering most likely one of the reverse genetic systems that already exist for coronaviruses would have been used. But analysis of the new coronavirus do not show modification with any of such systems.

Natural Selection In Animals

The authors of the study give us three possibilities for the creation of SARS-CoV-2. The first option is that the virus is a result of natural selection in animal hosts that happened before the virus became viable in humans. That actually seems likely – at least thanks to the evidence that we have with the earliest cases that most likely came from the Wuhan animal market. From all the read RNA sequences SARS-CoV-2 is most similar to the RaTG13 sequence that came from a bat. The sequences are 96 % the same. But the bat sequence differs in a significant mutation of the RBD.

On the other hand, the mutations can also be found in an altogether less similar RNA sequence that came from an illegally smuggled Sunda pangolin. This again would be evidence of natural selection and not genetic engineering. But neither the RNA sequences from the bat or the pangolin are a cleavage site that splits furin. Currently, we do not know of any similar animal coronavirus that would have both RBD mutations and a polybasic cleavage site. But, the diversity of these viruses is large and we do not know that much about it.

Natural Selection In Humans

The second option is that the natural selection took place after the virus became viable in humans. And it doesn't matter whether it was from a bat or a different animal because if that was the case the virus that became viable would have been quite different from the virus that kills now. It could have become the killer as a result of natural selection while slowly infecting humans. In such a case it would most likely have RBD mutations in the RBD and the polybasic cleavage site would get created later once it already lived in humans.

An Accident

The third option may a very unlikely option. That is that that the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 got created by accident when working with laboratory cultures of viruses and then somehow it escaped. Not because of some malicious intent. Just by evolution but inside of a lab and because of an accident. Similar cases rarely happen but most likely this was not the case.

Conclusion

So… SARS-CoV-2 is not extraterrestrial. It isn't a biological weapon. It wasn't made by the USA, Russia, the Jews, or the Vatican. Not even China made it – even if they aren't exactly angels and they do have a military biological lab in Wuhan.

Yet, China does have a major part of the responsibility for the pandemic. According to recently published information the lab in Wuhan was fighting against the infection, it read the RNA sequence of the virus and was trying to get the situation under control. But someone higher up gave a command that they are making too big of a deal of it and decided to rather cover it up – forcing the Wuhan lab to end their research. Again, it wasn't malicious but just bureaucratic idiocy as we all know it too well.

China was keeping the virus's sequence for at least a week, then it kept samples of the virus and it is almost sure that China underestimated the number of both infected and dead. And there is no doubt that it was because of this delay that was made in the “good name” of the Chinese regime that people are now dying all over the world.

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