Coronavirus, technoscience and power

 
Coronavirus, technoscience and power
x Alfredo Caro Maldonado: Why do we care so much as societies about relatively low-lethal epidemics, while we ignore the stroke by city pollution

One of the characteristics of contemporary times is that what is written ages instantly. At the time of writing, some tens of thousands of people with coronavirus infection and hundreds of deaths have been diagnosed, but according to The Lancet, one hundred thousand infected people could have been exceeded. But they are old figures, and how could it be otherwise, here you can follow the numbers in real time. This is the news of the beginning of the decade, no doubt. A lot is being published on the subject, but everything is confusing and having clear that all prudence is little, we just wanted to summarize what is known, disassemble bulos and launch some ideas for debate.

What is coronavirus (CV)?

At this point the population has become an expert in virology. We have seen the last few weeks the image of the crown of the Wuhan virus. It is one of the viruses that produces the common cold, along with the rhinovirus, that affects the respiratory tract and can cause pneumonia. It is a virus called RNA, that means that its genetic information is contained in a molecule more elementary than DNA.

Where does this 2019-nCoV come from?

Viruses, to reproduce, need the machinery of the cells. They are very elementary biological particles that are at the limits of life. So to penetrate the cell, circumvent defense controls, integrate into the cell genome and use its machinery to produce new virions, adaptation to the host is needed. That is, not any virus can infect any organism.

And here are two false stories that circulate about it:

It is not a virus that has escaped from any Chinese bioterrorist research center. Hindu researchers analyzed the nucleotide sequence of the virus and discovered very small fragments of 18 nucleotides, which when translated into protein are 6 amino acids, which do not coincide with other coronaviruses. In addition, that sequence does coincide with other RNA viruses, for example that of HIV. This study has not yet been published passing the normal controls, but has used a relatively new tool in biomedicine, not in other disciplines, and that is giving good results, which is the "pre-print", a method of pre-printing publication that allows the scientific community to value a study. But it is important that society and especially the media are aware that this is not a scientific publication, because it has not passed the necessary controls. Although this does not mean that a scientific publication necessarily has to be reliable. So the community has scrutinized these results and has dismantled the weak conclusions of the authors. No, there are no indications of genetic engineering behind this sequence, but they are very common fragments, typical of the mutations necessary for species jumps.

Nor is it a foreign bioterrorist attack on China as conspiracy news states because Chinese and foreign scientists have quite limited origin.

And it doesn't come from a snake. The differences are too large, it is more likely to come from a mammal, a civet (such as a gine) or a pangolin that has jumped from the bat. But this does not mean that we have to kill all the bats, or even stop eating them, well, that perhaps, especially the poor unfortunate pangolin. Jumps of viruses between species are inevitable, but it is true that they can be faster (and therefore more lethal) the more we invade uninhabited areas, as could be the case with Ebola.

What is the real scope and danger?

It is said that the Chinese government is hiding the real figures. Even relevant medical figures such as Dr. Cavadas who is a surgeon, not an epidemiologist, in an interview with Antena 3 who went viral, where he states with a single fact, that his daughters are Chinese, that the figures are much higher, between ten hundred times. It is very irresponsible to affirm such barbarity. WHO has participated from the beginning, together with the Chinese government, in monitoring the epidemic. If this bocachancla doctor had half a reason there would be one million infected and twenty thousand dead. Impossible to hide.

The consequences of media paranoia is that in Frosinone, Italy, for example, they are taking it in stone with the Chinese community. All that technological progress, all that civilization, to return to the stoning of lepers.


The virus is spreading seems quite fast, a consequence of the universalization of transport (high-speed trains and airplanes) in China. In Spain it is estimated that fifteen thousand people died of influenza in the period of 2017-2018. The lethality of CV seems less than that of influenza and much less than malaria. But estimates of 2% mortality could be very biased by the fact that since the infection occurs until the person dies weeks go by, so today's mortality is that of those infected three weeks ago, but of the diagnosed two years ago. Again there are no reliable figures.

It can be spread before symptoms appear and sometimes go unnoticed, so the measures being taken, such as quarantining millions of people, closing borders or taking the temperature in public spaces, will not work.

There is another interesting aspect. It could be that the excessive increase in cases is due in part to the improvement in diagnosis, so, when more patients are detected, it contributes to appear that it is growing at a higher rate than it had been 20 years ago. That is, it is the great capacity for diagnosis (PCR and affordable sequencing) and mass control of body temperature, which precisely means that all those thousands of cases are being detected which 20 years ago would have gone through a simple cold. It is the Paradox of Jevons applied to an epidemic. The more technology, the more sick. However, the number of asymptomatic but undiagnosed infectives is unknown. It is China's great development, in turn, that has allowed such rapid expansion; and also what has allowed him to react in such a beast and possibly disproportionate manner. The reaction of the Chinese government is striking, building a hospital for a thousand people in a few days. A clear punch on the table, a message abroad demonstrating its technological power and another inside responding to a population that demands a strong state, capable of taking care of its people effectively. Although more technology does not necessarily mean more efficiency. And the height of the paradox is that the virus jeopardizes the success of the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

Prevention measures

These viruses are transmitted by aerosols (cough, sneezing) and by contact. It seems that in the first case only if it is less than two meters away. However, the Chinese authorities are even giving away masks. The mask does not protect at all unless it has a filter and is well adjusted. The paper ones, especially after a good handling, are useless. What it protects is obviously to avoid contact with affected people, to wash their hands well, hygiene of surfaces that many people touch, etc. But we must emphasize the prevention of transmission. Everyone has the responsibility to cough and sneeze into the elbow, use (really) disposable tissues. And the measure that would effectively prevent the spread of viruses like this, or the flu, is to stay home when you feel bad. As simple as that. The one that cannot take you out of the job for missing, that the care of sick people is recognized and some of the carers may be absent to take care, for example. That would be much more effective than many of the measures being carried out.

One of the most interesting measures that the Chinese government has implemented is to give more vacation days after the new year and many companies ask their employees to work from home. It is one of the most effective solutions. The main risk factor in the transmission of influenza (and therefore the CV) is Frenadol. Yes, that reactionary invention so that you work while ill and that, as in the announcement, you accompany your daughter to the costume party, both very irresponsible activities with a contagious disease. The case of the German tourist in La Gomera with CV turns out that he was infected from a person who had been in contact with a Chinese co-worker, and that is that the virus is transmitted before it produces symptoms. And it has an incubation period of 5 days. As it turns out, that German went to work "because he already felt better."

Treatments

Vaccinations

Vaccines are biological medicines that respond to a general principle called "adaptive immunity." That means that in front of a biological element, strange (external) potentially pathogenic, proteins called antibodies that specifically attack those pathogens are developed based on signals that make them unique. But of course, the work of the star cop is not easy, as we were taught marvelously in "Once upon a time life", rather complex, because differentiating that of the alien and the potentially pathogenic requires a series of controls to avoid rolling it brown (autoimmunity or sepsis)

which makes many diseases not have a "good" adaptive response, such as colds or the flu. It is not just a matter of virus mutations as they say, but of proportional responses. So sometimes the best defense against the virus is innate immunity, that the fever rises, we are tired and we stay in bed.

The vaccines are trying to imitate that natural process, so some work great and others do not work no matter how much the AEP try to sell them at all costs even in breach of the law.

The case of CV, such as colds (rhinovirus) or influenza, are examples of very complicated vaccines. In the best case it would take a couple of years to have a list to vaccinate massively. The pharmaceutical companies want to accelerate this process at all costs and that has some problems, no matter how much the Iker Jiménez of the solutionism says otherwise. For example, these vaccines against the CV of 2002, SARs, produced such an exaggerated immune response in mice that induced pneumonia.

Vaccines are not uniform, safe and always effective technological solutions, but have unpredictable consequences and variable effectiveness.

There is also talk of antiretrovirals. There are several types, for example reverse transcriptase inhibitors. These viruses, like HIV, have the genetic material in the form of RNA, which requires a reverse transcription to DNA, something that certainly only occurs (known) in RNA viruses. Or the protease inhibitors that the virus needs to infect a cell. But, as in AIDS patients, these drugs produce side effects since antiretrovirals are not superspecific molecules, in the end there are other proteins in the cell similar and necessary to which that drug binds. Thus, against HIV they have been very beneficial, so much that they have turned the disease into chronic, but those same effects in such a mild viral infection would be like killing flies with gunshots.

The Chinese government has begun to produce a Cuban brand antiviral, the IFNrec, which is a recombinant molecule of a type of interferon, a substance produced by the cells when they are infected by a virus and that increases that innate immunity of which he spoke before . This can be a measure to reduce symptoms, although like any medicine it is not harmless.

And finally, be careful about approving drugs in a hurry, without the proper scientific evidence, as happened with Tamiflú, an ineffective drug, but whose manufacturer got many millions of benefits because half-world governments swallowed the bulo, the fake- science. China wants to accelerate a clinical trial of a supposed Gilead drug, only used in the laboratory, and the company has already begun to increase its production "in case it ends up being approved." They are irresponsible measures.

The health system is key both to prevent expansion and, above all, to reduce mortality.

Is there a cause for alarm?

There is reason to be alert. The WHO has acted correctly in declaring the emergency, not because it is a very severe epidemic, where "only" 20% of those infected develop disease and of those who have been admitted due to pneumonia are over 50 years old or with previous illnesses, but because of the consequences it would have in regions like India or the African continent.

What we have to ask ourselves is why we care so much as societies for relatively little lethal epidemics, while we ignore the stroke caused by the pollution of cities or that 700 people die each year at work. Is it an atavistic, induced fear or both?

Yes, the consequences of how the epidemic is being addressed can be cause for alarm. On the one hand it is being used as a weapon in the commercial, media and political war against China. Something that, as we said, is adding fuel to the racist fire that runs through Europe and the world. Western media rejoice in the human and economic consequences on the Chinese people. On the other hand, the Chinese government is using the epidemic to increase control over the population, harvest huge amounts of data, try new artificial intelligence techniques (temperature control, facial recognition, etc.). Our duty is not to add more fuel to the fire by encouraging and transmitting bulls, whatever the political sign they may be. Prudence must prevail.

Economic consequences. The weakness of a growth-dependent market economy means that, on the one hand, a decrease in tourism and travel, consumption, uncertainty, etc. It can help the seemingly budding economic crisis, and on the other the great dependence on the production of Chinese technological goods, with tiny profit margins, endangers international technological trade.

Diseases are inevitable, technology should be at our service to mitigate, mitigate and sometimes eradicate them, but always with the best available evidence and prioritizing human rights and equality, it does not seem to be the case in this crisis.

The jump