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Trying to get some stuff straight. - There are 200 types of common cold viruses. - 10-40% colds are caused by rhinoviruses, 160 human types = mostly spring/summer colds - 20% caused by 4 human types of coronaviruses, more winter colds - 20% RSV (1 virus, hits kids more)
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- There are 3 non-common-cold coronaviruses that cause more serious illness, making a total of 7. They are: SARS-CoV-1, MERS, and SARS-CoV-2 - The 4 regular coronaviruses are 229E (alpha coronavirus), NL63 (alpha coronavirus), OC43 (beta coronavirus), HKU1 (beta coronavirus)
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- We don’t have a common cold vaccine because there’s too many - We don’t even know the cause of ~20% but they are presumed viral - Flu is more severe and has a vaccine because it’s only 3 virus families: A, B C. - All flu pandemics are from the type A, with the HxNy typology
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Most of the endemic ones are mild/non-fatal because they invaded humans several thousand years ago and did likely cause severe pandemics back then. The evolved to be less fatal and human immune systems also adapted and truly genetically vulnerable types got culled effectively.
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Exactly what I’ve been wondering. What’s to stop corona from going rhino and evolving 160 subtypes and effectively DDoSing us with variety, BUT remaining more dangerous than both colds and flus? We’ve got 4 mild and 3 severe coronaviruses already.
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Replying to @vgr
I've been wondering about this lately. How many strains of the coronavirus will exist by the time a "vaccine" is developed? Could COVID-19 be a new, deadlier common cold?
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Note: a new Influenza A is still the most likely pandemic. So Covid19 isn’t even the pandemic we were most expecting. 2018 study cited in Pale Rider says 20% chance of 4 pandemics in next century, with high likelihood of one being a flu. 19th and 20th each had 2-3 flu pandemics.
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Replying to and
And one of my brother's colleagues (doctors) got it twice, both confirmed. And a study in Israel found dozens of reinfections. Key word is dozens, among tens of millions of confirmed cases, among tens of thousands of regularly tested and exposed doctors. It's basically noise.
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