Multiple Soylentils have submitted stories regarding the 2019-nCoV coronavirus which is believed to have originated in the city of Wuhan, China in December 2019. Rather than have a smattering of stories appear on the site, they have been gathered here in one story. Read on if you are interested; otherwise another story will be along presently.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/01/coronavirus-spread-protect-200130115539072.html:
The 2019-nCoV coronavirus spreads from person to person in close proximity, similarly to other respiratory illnesses, such as the flu.
The disease can be transmitted through sneezing or coughing, which disperses droplets of body fluids such as saliva or mucus.
According to scientists, coughs and sneezes can travel several feet and stay suspended in the air for up to 10 minutes.
These droplets can come into direct contact with other people, or can infect those who pick them up by touching surfaces on which the infected droplets land, or touching a surface and then their face.
It is not yet know how long the virus can survive on surfaces, but in other viruses the range is between a few hours or months.
Transmission is of particular concern on transport, where droplets containing the coronavirus could pass between passengers or via surfaces like plane seats and armrests.
The incubation period of the coronavirus, the length of time before symptoms appear, is between one and 14 days.
Though not yet confirmed, Chinese health authorities believe the virus can be transmitted before symptoms appear.
This would have major implications for containment measures, according to Gerard Krause, head of the Department for Epidemiology at the Helmholtz Centre for Infection.
"It's unusual for respiratory diseases transmissible even before the first symptoms have occurred," he told Al Jazeera.
"But the consequences is that if it happens then they have no public health means sort out or to identify people at risk of transmitting, because they don't even know that they're ill yet."
[...] In terms of self protection and containing the virus, experts agree that is important to wash hands thoroughly with soap; cover your face when coughing or sneezing; visit a doctor if you have symptoms and avoid direct contact with live animals in affected areas.
While face masks are popular, scientists doubt their effectiveness against airborne viruses.
They may provide some protection to you and others, but they are loose and made of permeable material, meaning droplets can still pass through.
Some countries, such as the UK and Nigeria, have advised people travelling back from China to self-quarantine for at least two weeks.
Beijing's government announced on Sunday that some of the city's hospitals are giving patients infected with the Wuhan coronavirus medication used to treat HIV, part of efforts to stop the spread of the deadly illness.
"Online rumors say that an anti-Aids drug has been used and proved to be effective in treating the coronavirus," according to a statement by Beijing Municipal Health Commission. "The National Health Commission has recommended the rumored names to treat the coronavirus before and we have Lopinavir/Ritonavir in stock in Beijing,"
Three Beijing hospitals designated to treat confirmed coronavirus cases – Beijing Ditan Hospital, Beijing Youan Hospital, and No 5 Medical Center of PLA General Hospital – have begun using this therapy for treatment, the statement added.
The two drugs are antiretrovirals, which block the ability of HIV to bind with healthy cells and reproduce, and are often used in combination to treat the illness.
https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.01.30.927871v1
Abstract:
We are currently witnessing a major epidemic caused by the 2019 novel coronavirus (2019- nCoV). The evolution of 2019-nCoV remains elusive. We found 4 insertions in the spike glycoprotein (S) which are unique to the 2019-nCoV and are not present in other coronaviruses. Importantly, amino acid residues in all the 4 inserts have identity or similarity to those in the HIV- 1 gp120 or HIV-1 Gag. Interestingly, despite the inserts being discontinuous on the primary amino acid sequence, 3D-modelling of the 2019-nCoV suggests that they converge to constitute the receptor binding site. The finding of 4 unique inserts in the 2019-nCoV, all of which have identity /similarity to amino acid residues in key structural proteins of HIV-1 is unlikely to be fortuitous in nature. This work provides yet unknown insights on 2019-nCoV and sheds light on the evolution and pathogenicity of this virus with important implications for diagnosis of this virus.
Copyright:
The copyright holder for this preprint is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under a CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license.
A preprint of the entire journal article is available as a pdf.
Previously:
Coronavirus Declared a Global Health Emergency by World Health Organization
Plague Inc. Maker: Don't use our Game for Coronavirus Modeling
In The Pipeline: Coronavirus
China Battles Coronavirus Outbreak: All the Latest Updates
Coronavirus: Millions Quarantined in Wuhan City
China Confirms Human-To-Human Transmission of New Coronavirus; CDC Confirms First US Case
China Reports 3rd Death, Nearly 140 New Cases of Coronavirus
Thailand Quarantines 32 Due to MERS Case
Coronavirus Breakthrough: Protein Mutation Affects Spread and Virulence of Respiratory Virus
Original Submission #1 Original Submission #2 Original Submission #3
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 01 2020, @04:24PM (6 children)
I'm sorry but you need to read TFA, you can't be helped if you are asking "what evidence" without reading the evidence. Oh yea, I forgot TFA just includes words and pictures which doesn't count as evidence to you.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Saturday February 01 2020, @05:59PM (3 children)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 01 2020, @08:18PM (2 children)
Khallow, if you can't read the evidence at the link and address it, there is no way anything type can help you. Please just leave me alone.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Sunday February 02 2020, @12:55AM (1 child)
(Score: 1) by khallow on Thursday February 06 2020, @01:51PM
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 02 2020, @05:38AM (1 child)
The article you link to just talks about high mutation rates (and ranges) but that doesn't really tell me what I should expect in terms of making the relevant comparisons. Even your response (well, it could be ten years later, who knows) suggests to me that we really have no link here.
(BTW, I'm the same person that has been arguing with khallow for all this time now. After reading through https://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.3000003 [plos.org] I agree with khallow's conclusion I just disagree with some of his specific arguments and I disagree with the level of disrespect in his posts).
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 02 2020, @02:51PM
I agree with you, this is speculative. The even bigger assumption this explanation rests on is that China was vaccinating people for SARS, we have no reports of that.