COVID Transmissions for 2-10-2021
Further investigation into the origins of SARS-CoV-2
Good morning and welcome to COVID Transmissions.
It has been 450 days since the first documented human case of COVID-19. An average infant conceived on the day COVID-19 first emerged would at this point be 5.6 months old.
Today we’ll talk about the origins of SARS-CoV-2, and anti-vaccine lies on Facebook.
As usual, bolded terms are linked to the running newsletter glossary.
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Now, let’s talk COVID.
The origins of SARS-CoV-2
A joint Chinese-WHO investigation has been conducted over the past two weeks, looking into the likely origins of the virus. This is covered by CIDRAP here: https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/news-perspective/2021/02/china-probe-says-sars-cov-2-jump-go-between-host-most-likely
The investigation supports that an intermediate animal host was probably involved, between bats and humans, in the emergence of the virus. This we already suspected. Additionally, they confirmed that the seafood market that was originally implicated was probably not the first place the virus emerged—something else that we have known for awhile, but it is good to have it confirmed by an investigation containing both Chinese officials as well as international observers.
Also, and importantly, they ruled out the possibility that the virus originated outside of China. This idea had been put forward in certain conspiracy theory outlets in China, and had been part of certain disinformation campaigns, so it’s good to see the idea put to bed.
The independent team also looked at other possibilities. They considered a lab accidentally releasing a sample of a natural virus to be the least likely scenario. Other scenarios not considered likely were transmission from frozen food, or a direct spillover event from bats into humans.
We are probably never going to know the precise truth of how SARS-CoV-2 entered humans, but time and again investigations have revealed the idea that the virus passed from a reservoir animal host (bats) to an intermediary, non-reservoir animal host, and then into humans. This sounds very plausible to me, and has been known to happen with other viruses as well. Usually the effects are not so globally devastating.
Facebook finally bans vaccine misinformation
In a step that is more than a decade overdue, Facebook has finally banned vaccine misinformation from the platform. This is pretty irritating to me. They know they could have done this before, and they are doing it now not because it is the right thing to do, but because there is a spotlight on how they hadn’t done the right thing yet.
Lies about vaccines are insidious and they kill. No private company should be enabling their spread to help its own profits. It is, of course, good that Facebook has finally done this, but they’ll get no credit from me for doing the decent thing after so long allowing this kind of nonsense to flourish.
You can read about it here: https://amp.theguardian.com/technology/2021/feb/08/facebook-bans-vaccine-misinformation
What am I doing to cope with the pandemic? This:
Planning a Purim Party
My synagogue is planning a virtual party for the holiday of Purim, which is typically very festive. As part of the hospitality committee, I’m contributing to making it happen, starting with the graphic design of an invite for it.
I’m told there will be some kind of cocktail demonstration, which is exciting. And maybe a costume “parade” with color commentary. It’s better than staring at apartment walls, that’s for sure!
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See you all next time.
Always,
JS
At what point will we know more about whether vaccinated people can still carry the virus and infect others? With millions of people already vaccinated shouldn't we have decent data on that already?