Posted on Feb 5, 2021
Where Did The Coronavirus Variants Come From?
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Back in the spring last year, a 45-year-old man went to the Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston because of a COVID-19 infection. Doctors treated him with steroids and discharged him five days later.
But the COVID infection never went away — for 154 days. "He was readmitted to the hospital several times over the subsequent five months for recurrence of his COVID-19 infection and severe pneumonia," says infectious disease doctor Jonathan Li at Harvard Medical School who helped to treat the man.
"So this is an extraordinary individual," Li says.
So extraordinary in fact, that this man's case is offering scientists surprising clues about where the new coronavirus virus variants emerged, and why they're causing explosive outbreaks on three continents.
To be clear here, the man wasn't what doctors call a "long hauler," or a person who clears a COVID infection and then continues to have health problems for months. This man had living, growing virus in body for five months, Li says. The same infection lasted for five months.
But the COVID infection never went away — for 154 days. "He was readmitted to the hospital several times over the subsequent five months for recurrence of his COVID-19 infection and severe pneumonia," says infectious disease doctor Jonathan Li at Harvard Medical School who helped to treat the man.
"So this is an extraordinary individual," Li says.
So extraordinary in fact, that this man's case is offering scientists surprising clues about where the new coronavirus virus variants emerged, and why they're causing explosive outbreaks on three continents.
To be clear here, the man wasn't what doctors call a "long hauler," or a person who clears a COVID infection and then continues to have health problems for months. This man had living, growing virus in body for five months, Li says. The same infection lasted for five months.
Where Did The Coronavirus Variants Come From?
Posted from npr.org
Science
Medical
Health
Posted 4 y ago
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Charles Darwin studied embryos of different animals and realized that different animals at the embryonic state are similar. I am just making up these facts just to illustrate what he noticed. Let's say human embryos have gills but will not mature into gills. Whale flippers in embryos might have what appears to be fingers of a hand. He theorized there was evolution through mutations, but he did not have to technology to determine the exact cause. Scientists have the tools now to understand the process better. They observed that animals with very similar genes might have 3 genes that are different which causes the animal to be different. They theorize that sometimes in the replication of an offspring and genes are copied, slight mistakes are made in the copying of the genes which is what mutation is.
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