Lotan: 10 things we still don't know about the Corona pandemic

The Swiss newspaper Lutan said that there are more than 51,000 scientific articles listed in a database on the SARS Cove-2 virus responsible for the Covid-19 epidemic, although it was unknown four or five months ago, yet most of the basic questions related to it have not been completed. Solved it yet.

In a joint article between four journalists, the newspaper said that the public finds it difficult to accept change and contradiction in some of the recommendations related to this epidemic, and attributed this to the fact that most of the main questions remain unresolved, even though millions of scholars have entered this unexplored land, studying an inherited sequence This virus and its mechanisms of action, trying to make a vaccine for it.

The newspaper summarized these questions, which it considers basic scientific puzzles still unresolved in ten, and reviewed them as follows:

1. How did the epidemic begin?

From the very beginning, you are familiar with the first puzzle, where scientists still do not know exactly where SARS Cove-2 comes, although analyzes of his genetic inheritance indicate that it is a Chinese bat virus, and it appeared through a genetic mutation, as was observed with other coronaviruses.

And the least certain - as the newspaper says - is how this virus crossed the barrier between species, and thus how it reached humans, so did it "jump" from the bat to humans? Or is there one or more intermediary hosts? Although knowledge of the origin of the virus is crucial to prevent its re-emergence, nothing is certain until now, especially since the hypothesis that the pangolin is the mediator has begun to be abandoned.

2. How is the virus transmitted?

The newspaper said that the way the virus is transmitted so easily is still confusing, especially since it has so far infected nearly two million clinically confirmed cases, and although it is confirmed that the spray that comes out with coughing, sneezing or speaking is a carrier of the virus, it is still not known how far it is transmitted through medical machines and surfaces Stools and aerosols, knowing that these clouds of invisible drops indicated by recent studies that they are contagious, which means that the virus is transmitted through the air.

3. What is the mortality rate?

The severity of Covid-19 was not determined accurately, although the World Health Organization established the death rate (the number of deaths divided by the number of confirmed cases) on March 28, at 4.6%, but this figure may be much lower than the reality, if it is set Uncertain situations in mind, such as those who die without symptoms.

The newspaper warned that the death rate will not be known exactly until the epidemic ends, noting that measuring the severity of the disease is also used to increase the death rate that occurs in the first quarter of 2020 compared to previous years.

4. What is the secret of the difference in disease cases?

The newspaper pointed out that the variation of cases baffled many doctors, as how to explain the severity of some cases in young people and healthy people, if we accept that aging and the presence of chronic diseases can be threatening elements.

Scientists are still making some hypotheses to solve this mystery, among them the "cytokine storm", which is a phenomenon of excessive inflammation in the immune system caused by the virus in some patients, and it can have a harmful effect, such as a significant drop in blood pressure, pulmonary edema or acute shortness of breath. , Which may result in death.

5. Which medicine can be used?

"There is as yet no cure for the Covid-19 epidemic, so treatment capacity is limited to symptomatic treatment," the Federal Office of Public Health said on its website.

However, doctors have at their disposal some medications that they give on a case-by-case basis, depending on the patient's file and available inventory, such as antivirals such as caletra and rashesdevir, and an antimalarial such as hydroxychloroquine, in addition to the antibiotics that are sometimes used to combat associated infections.

Another major unknown about the Covid-19 epidemic, as the newspaper says, is: does a person emerge from illness while immune ?, and how long does this immunity last?

To answer this question, the data is still incomplete to date, and therefore scientists rely mainly on studies conducted during previous epidemics, such as SARS and respiratory syndrome in the Middle East.

A Chinese study conducted on macaques infected with this virus showed that the monkeys produced neutral antibodies that allowed them to resist a new infection, results that support the acquired immune thesis, but it is impossible to obtain estimates for the duration of this immunity at this stage.

7. What is the role of children in spreading the epidemic?

As long as there is certainty that the vast majority of children are less affected by this epidemic than the elderly, so that in Switzerland there are approximately eight hundred confirmed cases among children out of approximately 26 thousand cases, scientists have serious doubts about the precise role that children can play in the spread the disease.

Scientists still disagree on this point, as their difference in transmitting people without symptoms to the epidemic, although the predominant tendency is that these two groups transmit the disease, but the current data do not allow any final conclusions to be drawn.

The newspaper said that the precise methods of mutation of this virus are an area to be explored, because genetic mutations are important data for the development of a vaccine, especially since viruses escape from vaccines more easily by modifying their genetic heritage repeatedly during mutations.

The newspaper said that the change in the inheritance of this genetic virus occurs relatively slowly, with an estimated mutation rate of less than 25 mutations per year, which is half the rate of the influenza virus responsible for the flu.

9. Are pets contagious?

Certainly, cats, dogs, tigers and many animals have been shown to carry the virus, but it has not been noticed after the disease was transmitted from a pet to a human being, knowing that a study conducted on pets was sick, and its development of antibodies was not observed.

And the animals can spread the virus through their fur, such as the contaminated door handle, and its transmission cannot be excluded from the disease, but the scarcity of the reported cases of infected animals allows estimating that the transmission of the virus to humans is still not possible.

10. When? How will the epidemic end?

The newspaper estimated that many variables will determine the future course of the epidemic, such as the possibility of producing a vaccine that contains or eradicates it, which will not be available for a year, knowing that there are approximately seventy vaccines under study, including three in the clinical evaluation and testing stage in humans, according to For a WHO report.

Meanwhile, possible life-saving therapies continue to be tried clinically, such as antivirals or antimalarials, but if nothing changes, the virus will continue on its path, and may disappear due to the lack of people infecting them.