Skip to main content

 https://www.quantamagazine.org/how-do-animal-viruses-like-coronavirus-jump-species-20200225/Zoonotic diseases like influenza and many coronaviruses start out in animals, but their biological machinery often enables them to jump to humans.

Where do these viruses come from? MERS-CoV and SARS-CoV appear to originate in animals, and the same is likely true of SARS-CoV-2. This makes them zoonoses, diseases that can jump between humans and other animals. MERS-CoV and SARS-CoV were originally bat viruses that spread to an intermediate animal (camel and civet cat, respectively), which then exposed humans to the viruses. Genetic analysis of SARS-CoV-2 sequences shows that their closest genetic relatives appear to be bat coronaviruses, with the role of intermediate species possibly played by the pangolin, an endangered species trafficked in China for its scales and meat. There are four coronaviruses that cause colds in humans — known as HCoV-229E, HCoV-NL63, HCoV-OC43 and HCoV-HKU1 — and these also seem to have zoonotic origins.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Trump dictatorship is increasingly inevitable. We should stop pretending.

Opinion A Trump dictatorship is increasingly inevitable. We should stop pretending. By Robert Kagan Editor at large November 30, 2023 at 8:00 a.m. EST (Anthony Gerace for The Washington Post; photos by Getty Images, AFP) Listen 33 min https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/11/30/trump-dictator-2024-election-robert-kagan/ Comment 12074 Add to your saved stories Save Robert Kagan, a Post Opinions contributing editor, is the author of “Rebellion: How Antiliberalism Is Tearing America Apart — Again,” which will be published by Knopf in May. Let’s stop the wishful thinking and face the stark reality: There is a clear path to dictatorship in the United States, and it is getting shorter every day. In 13 weeks, Donald Trump will have locked up the Republican nomination. In the RealClearPolitics poll average (for the period from Nov. 9 to 20), Trump leads his nearest competitor by 47 points and leads the rest of the field combined by 27 points. The idea that he is unelectable in the
Post a Comment
Read more

Obamagate

Trump: Obamagate. It’s been going on for a long time. It’s been going on from before I even got elected, and it’s a disgrace that it happened, and if you look at what’s gone on, and if you look at now, all this information that’s being released — and from what I understand, that’s only the beginning — some terrible things happened, and it should never be allowed to happen in our country again. And you’ll be seeing what’s going on over the next, over the coming weeks but I, and I wish you’d write honestly about it but unfortunately you choose not to do so. Rucker: What is the crime, exactly, that you’re accusing him of? Trump: You know what the crime is. The crime is very obvious to everybody. All you have to do is read the newspapers, except yours.
Post a Comment
Read more

How Extremists Took Over Israel

The Unpunished: How Extremists Took Over Israel After 50 years of failure to stop violence and terrorism against Palestinians by Jewish ultranationalists, lawlessness has become the law. h ttps://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/16/magazine/israel-west-bank-settler-violence-impunity.html Ronen BergmanMark Mazzetti By Ronen Bergman and Mark Mazzetti May 16, 2024 This story is told in three parts. The first documents the unequal system of justice that grew around Jewish settlements in Gaza and the West Bank. The second shows how extremists targeted not only Palestinians but also Israeli officials trying to make peace. The third explores how this movement gained control of the state itself. Taken together, they tell the story of how a radical ideology moved from the fringes to the heart of Israeli political power. PART I. IMPUNITY By the end of October, it was clear that no one was going to help the villagers of Khirbet Zanuta. A tiny Palestinian community, some 150 people perched on a windswep
Post a Comment
Read more