Peter Newell presented Science Today “Biology of COVID-19: Symptoms, Treatments, Vaccines” to Oswego State over Zoom on Sept. 22.
Newell is a professor in the department of biological sciences at Oswego State. He calls himself an “armchair immunologist” to not confuse the population on his expertise level in immunology. Newell’s main focus is actually on bacteria and genetics, not immunology, but does have an interest in it and did research on it for his presentation.
Newell’s prominent message at the beginning of his presentation was that this pandemic is far from over. American deaths from the COVID-19 virus have surpassed 200,000. Active participation in stopping the spread is still necessary and required.
Transmission of the virus has been confirmed to be airborne. Recently, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention posted and took down an update saying that it is possible for COVID-19 to be spread through small particles called aerosols. Aerosols can travel further than six feet. Jay Butler, the CDC’s Deputy Director for Infectious Diseases explained why the post had to be taken down.
“Unfortunately an early draft of a revision went up without any technical review,” Butler said. “We are returning to the earlier version and revisiting that process. It was a failure of process at CDC.”
It is vital to continue to wear masks and remain socially distant, as there is a two-day period where people are infectious but asymptomatic. People tend to be infectious three days after exposure and symptomatic after five days. On top of that, 20 to 50% of people remain asymptomatic but still are infectious.
Mild cases of COVID-19 tend to resolve in two weeks. Severe cases tend to be resolved in four to eight weeks. There are cases in which people are being called “long-haulers,” as they suffer for months and still have long-lasting effects after testing negative for the virus.
In severe cases of COVID-19, patients are “drowning in their own fluid,” as Newell described it. The immune system causes Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome while trying to fight the virus. ARDS causes the alveoli to fill with fluid, and this blocks gas exchange. Ventilators are used to force air into these patients’ lungs. The ventilators treat the symptom of not being able to breath but does not treat the problem of fluid in the lungs.
In these cases, the virus is not actually what kills the patient. It is their own immune system.Steroids have been proved successful in calming down the immune system. Treatment with steroids has reduced death rates by 20 to 35% by “calming the storm” of the immune system.
The COVID-19 virus can impact a range of mammals and birds. There are actually at least six different strains of coronavirus that are common in humans and cause 15 to 30% of common colds. Doctors and scientists have dealt with the coronavirus before, but not this strain of it. The reason COVID-19 is so difficult to deal with is because it is a zoonotic “spillover” event. This means that the virus was transferred to humans from an animal.
As for vaccine development, The New York Times is providing a COVID-19 vaccine tracker. There are four main vaccine studies ongoing. Protein based, genetic, attenuated/killed virus and vector.
Photo by Kailee Montross | The Oswegonian
