COVID-19: If You Do Not Feel for Humanity, You Have Forgotten to Be Human
June 12, 2020
In consultation with a range of scientists and engineers, Vijay Prashad
offers a guide to the virus and some possible antidotes.
Antún Kojtom Lam (Mexico), Chulel, 2013.
By Vijay Prashad
Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research
The coronavirus continues its contagious march across the planet: almost
425,000 known deaths and over 7.6 million people infected. Recently, in the
Bay of Bengal, Cyclone Amphan made its fierce landing, its immense energy
tearing a corridor through Bangladesh and India (Odisha and West Bengal).
[And the U.S. is in turmoil over racial injustice.] If you do not feel for
humanity in this period, you have forgotten to be human.
Banksy (unknown), Game Changer, 2020.
At Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research, we continue with our
studies on CoronaShock, which illuminate why the capitalist order has
spluttered before this pandemic, while the socialist sections have recovered
much faster.
In 2005, the former International Monetary Fund economist Kenneth Rogoff
wrote, The next great battle between socialism and capitalism will be waged
over human health and life expectancy. Our assessment is that one of the
reasons for the advances in the socialist parts of the world, despite their
economic poverty, is that they take science seriously. For that reason, in
consultation with a range of scientists and engineers, we have produced Red
Alert #7 to explain the virus and antidotes to it.
Virus & Bacteria
Virus and bacteria are two major kinds of microbes infecting humans.
Bacteria are one of the oldest living organisms and have all of the
necessary components to live and reproduce. Only a small number of bacteria
cause human disease; many of them are good bacteria. Some are even necessary
for our survival.
Viruses are not defined as fully living organisms, as they cannot reproduce
by themselves. They are a small bit of genetic material contained in a
protein envelope. They are also generally much smaller than bacteria.
Viruses are genetic parasites that need other living cells to reproduce
themselves. When they invade the cells of their host, they hijack the cells
biochemical machinery to make a very large number of copies of themselves.
These copies are then released from the cell, sometimes killing it in the
process, then infecting other cells and repeating the cycle.
Bacteria are easier to kill, as they have their own distinct chemical
processes that drugs can attack, and they reproduce more slowly than
viruses. We have a whole host of medicines, from the older sulfa drugs to
other antibiotics, that successfully control bacterial infections in our
bodies.
Masaru Shichinohe (Japan), Either is Good, 2003.
The Novel Coronavirus
SARS-CoV-2 belongs to a family of viruses called coronaviruses that usually
infect mammals and birds. There are seven coronaviruses that infect humans,
four of which have crossed over earlier. SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes
the disease Covid-19, is one of the coronaviruses; it has spiked projections
on its surface, which resemble a crown or corona when studied under a
microscope.
The chances of viruses crossing over from other species to human beings
increase if these species are in close contact with us. Therefore both
factory farming and live markets of animals and birds provide opportunities
for such transfers, which are called zoonotic transfers.
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Bats often serve as a major reservoir of these viruses. The crossover from
bats to humans can happen directly, or it can happen through other animals
acting as intermediate hosts. Cats, monkeys, pangolins, and dogs can also
harbor such viruses, and therefore can act as intermediaries between bats
and us. Several viruses such as Ebola, rabies, encephalitis, SARS (now
renamed as SARS-CoV-1), Chikungunya, Zika, and Nipah have jumped from bats
to humans in this way.
Apart from bat viruses, some of the other viruses that have caused epidemics
in humans come from birds and pigs. The most well-known virus group that is
shared by pigs, birds, and us, is made up of the different strains of flu
viruses. It was a swine flu or bird flu that was responsible for the 1918
Spanish flu, which probably started in Kansas. It also caused the 2009-2010
pandemic that started in North America, infecting approximately 1.6 million
people and killing an estimated 284,000. The deadly H5N1 influenza, which is
currently seen to be a major threat, is a combination of swine and avian
flu. It spreads through birds and then to the human population through
domesticated ducks, poultry or poultry farms.
As viruses do not have the full mechanisms of a living cell, they use those
of host cells. Viruses have either DNA or RNA. DNA carries our genetic code,
while RNA uses this genetic code to produce the proteins that our body
needs. RNA viruses include hepatitis C, Ebola, SARS (both variants),
influenza, polio, measles, and HIV, which causes AIDS. The novel coronavirus
or SARS-CoV-2 is an RNA virus.
Herbert Ploberger (Austria), Self-Portrait with Opthalmological Models,
1928-1930.
Covid-19 Fatalities
SARS-CoV-1 and MERS-CoV-1 both had much higher mortality rates than
SARS-CoV-2. In SARS, the infection to fatality rate (people dead out of the
total infected) was 11 percent, while in MERS, it was approximately 35 per
cent. In comparison, SARS-CoV-2 or Covid-19 deaths are in the region of 1
percent much less than SARS or MERS. However, this is significantly higher
than the flu, which has an infection to fatality rate of less than .1
percent.
SARS-CoV-2 is dangerous, as it is easily passed from one person to another.
It is this ability to transmit easily from one infected person to another
that leads to a very large number of infections, and therefore to a very
high level of total deaths. SARS-CoV-2 affects people over 65 much more
seriously. The higher the age group, the more likely they have other risk
factors such as heart disease, diabetics, cancer, asthma or other chronic
diseases. It is this among other risk groups, such as those who are immune
compromised or have existing respiratory conditions that is seeing a much
higher death rate in the Covid-19 pandemic. This has been compounded in
countries with a large presence of nursing homes, where elderly patients
with weak immune systems and many chronic diseases live close together,
fueling the spread of the infection. But this does not mean that Covid-19 is
dangerous only for the elderly.
SAR-CoV-2 has more effectively adapted itself to its human hosts than
SARS-CoV-1 and MERS have. When the current version of the Covid-19 virus
mutated, either in us or in a yet-unknown intermediate host, it became
particularly effective in binding itself to human cells. The spike protein
on the surface of SARS-CoV-2 binds to the ACE-2 receptors that lie on the
surface of a large number of our cells, from the lungs to our liver,
kidneys, and intestinal tract.
The initial infection is most likely to occur through airborne particles
carried in droplets released by those infected. Therefore, the initial
infection takes place in the nose, throat, or upper respiratory tract. If
the body can fight the infection there and defeat it, it may exhibit itself
only as a mild throat irritation, dry cough, or mild fever. Quite often,
people who are infected do not even show symptoms; they are asymptomatic.
But both those who have mild symptoms or are asymptomatic can infect others.
In most people, Covid-19 is not a serious disease. But in a small proportion
of cases, the infection travels to the lungs the lower respiratory tract
triggering pneumonia. The lungs in such patients show a ground glass effect
visible in CT scans. For older people, it can also be accompanied by
secondary bacterial infections.
In some cases, Covid-19 becomes particularly dangerous when it causes the
immune system to overreact and go berserk. This heightened immune response
not only attacks the infected cells, but also the healthy cells, creating
what is called a cytokine storm and damaging the lungs even further. It is
the cytokine storm triggered by the flu of 1918-20 that caused its high
mortality. Further, as the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein can bind to other organs
in the body by attaching itself to the ACE-2 surface receptor, it also
attacks other vital organs and can contribute to multiple organ failures.
Ivan Vepkhvadze (USSR), Perspective. Young Scientists, 1981.
Vaccination
Vaccination became the major route to control infectious diseases caused by
viruses. While we did use vaccines against bacterial diseases like the
plague, and still use them against other diseases such as typhoid, with the
discovery of broad-spectrum antibiotic drugs like sulfa drugs, other
antibiotic drugs like penicillin, bacterial infections have become easier to
control.
Viral infections are fought largely by the bodys disease fighting
mechanisms. Our antibodies and T cells fight any external invasion, whether
by a bacteria or virus. Vaccines trick the body into creating antibodies in
our system to fight against infections of specific viruses. The bodys
immune system remembers the invaders introduced by the vaccine and knows how
to fight the actual infection when it presents itself. For viral diseases,
real herd immunity comes from vaccination, which protects a significant part
of the population and thereby breaks the transmission chain.
Research institutions and companies are taking different approaches to
vaccines. One set of approaches is to use existing technologies that is,
live, inactive, or parts of the viruses to trigger the creation of
antibodies. These vaccines are well-known. The other approach is to use the
advances in genetic engineering to create new types of vaccines. Both sets
of vaccines are entering clinical trials. Most candidate vaccines fail
during the clinical trial phase of vaccine development; they may not develop
antibodies, the effect may be too small, or they may even trigger negative
responses such as an even more serious infections than would have taken
place without the vaccine. Vaccine development can take a minimum of 12 to
18 months.
Vaccines are often developed with full patent protection to make profits for
private pharmaceutical companies, even though large amounts of public money
are invested for their development. Philanthropic capital which has
floated bodies such as GAVI (The Vaccine Alliance) claims that it supports
public good, but has refused to accept that vaccines should be available
without any patent protection. China, on the other hand, has said that it
will break the chains of patent protection and offer a vaccine as a public
good.
Once a drug works, or a vaccine is developed, duplicating it is within the
powers of any scientifically developed country. The protection against
such developments is in international treaties and geopolitics (such as in
the World Trade Organisations Trade-Related Intellectual Property Rights or
TRIPS).
Medicines
Existing drugs are being repurposed to fight the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Human
trials will teach us if these repurposed medicines are effective. Several
drug trials are in progress, such as a set of drugs being tested through the
Solidarity Trials, launched by the World Health Organization and partners.
Armed with a faith in science and medical knowledge, over two thousand Cuban
doctors in the Henry Reeve International Contingent of Doctors Specialized
in Disasters and Serious Epidemics have traveled across the world to fight
the pandemic on the frontlines. The Contingent, formed in 2005, is named
after a U.S. soldier who fought in the Cuban Army of Liberation between 1868
and 1878. His internationalist commitment inspires the Cuban medical
personnel. The suffocating air of jingoism and racism is not for them; their
internationalism and their commitment to science is what confirms our faith
in humanity. Code Pink has called for the Cuban medical workers to receive
the Nobel Prize for Peace. We hope that this will be the case.
