A disturbing possibility about the Coronavirus
In this video, Professor Francis Boyle talks about the likely sources of the coronavirus. Whether his speculation is true or not is a subject area that should be discussed at another time (possibly in the chambers of an international body responsible for matters rising to the level of war crimes and crimes against humanity). What I am more concerned about is the characteristics of the virus itself. Which should you do first: put out the fire or track down the person who lit the match?
There are two differences between this virus (CPP virus, Wuhan virus, Honey Badger Virus etc.) and the SARS and MERS strains to this family of viruses. The first has to do with its transmissibility. The two previous strains required specific forms of contact. This virus has the ability to spread through the air. It no longer needs to be on droplets, but the virus can be spread just by being within 2 meters of a person just breathing the shed virus.
The second but most damning aspect is that there is evidence that someone has mixed in some of the gene sequences of the HIV pathogen. As far as I know, there is no human resistance to the HIV retrovirus (although there may be one or two people who are immune ... a conjecture). If a person contracts the retrovirus, they will get sicker and then via medication will go into a "remission" but there is always the hazard that they will get sick again requiring further treatment until finally, they move into full-blown aids. If you are a person who has had a cold sore, you know that this virus lurks in your body and you can experience another infection ... even without a new contact with someone with the condition. I believe that people who had chickenpox also have the potential to develop shingles later in life.
There are a couple of factors that mitigate a person's response to this coronavirus. If they only received a slight exposure, the virus cannot replicate fast enough before the body is able to mount its forces to push it down ... lessening the symptoms. Alternatively, if a person does not have a high concentration of the ACE2 receptors, they will have less of the virus actually infecting the cells. This is why the coronavirus does not typically affect infants. It is rare for the virus to affect people younger than 12 (although this is my impression, not a verified rule). Conversely, people who smoke; had exposure to smoke; or who drink alcohol have a higher ACE2 receptor level (once again my conjecture) which tends to be true of older people have a greater chance of being affected.
Before learning of this HIV connection, I had considered that the reported cases of people who had been infected and then "cured" and then becoming reinfected again were anomalous, a failure in post-treatment testing or the people had been exposed to someone else ... possibly with a slight mutation in the virus. If instead the virus can be forced into a dormancy ("cured") but then resurge ie self-reinfect by a hidden store of the virus within the body it adds a critical complexion to the problem. Each succeeding reinfection has the potential of worsening into an increasingly fatal spiral.
At this stage, all of this is conjecture but it reinforces the idea that we must prevent the spread of this particular virus.