söndag 23 februari 2020

The Ancient Origin of Coronaviruses

19 new hospitals in Wuhan. Why? An interpretation of current Corona events is the following. (Remember; I’m a lawyer and historian but working with the medical profession gives you insights.) Is it minor event? It is possible that "the Wuhan disease" (a.k.a. COVID-19 etc. etc.) is only a minor event in the history of mankind. It could be like a bad case of global influenza. Maybe we will have a new vaccine within 3 months or so. That is possible. I am not arguing against an easy and swift solution to this problem.

But: An alternative. And more worrisome. I am thinking that we might be facing something new. Why? Let us look at the biology of the various forms of coronaviruses. The coronavirus from Wuhan is supposed to have come from bats. It has been discussed if the new coronavirus has also interacted with reptiles or pangolins. Bats have been around for about 50 million years. It has also been found that an individual bat can carry about 500 different types of coronaviruses. A group of 1 000 bats can thus be considered to carry about 50 000 different types of coronaviruses. However, the genetic age of known coronaviruses is about 10 000 years old according to the genetic-molecular clock. It seems as if the first coronavirus appeared on Earth at about the same time as Mankind entered the Neolithic period.

Perhaps the first human farmers began to collect their grain in store rooms (or primitive granaries), which attracted rodents - such as mice and rats - and bats so "a line of interaction" appeared between humans and bats, with rodents and other animals as intermediaries. Since bats are about 50 million years old, and the coronaviruses are about 10 000 years old, it is likely that the various lines of coronaviruses spread from humans, from the first farmers, to bats. And then back again. An elliptic cycle of interaction began between humans and bats, or more precisely, between humans and coronaviruses, with bats as neutral reservoirs for the latter.

A preliminary conclusion is that the modern coronaviruses appeared as a parasitic line among the early Neolithic farmers, and that these farmers became perfect hosts for the evolution of the coronaviruses, as the early farmers lived in packed urban communities in caves and stone houses in the northern Middle East. (So expect Turkey to blame the Kurds for Corona within a month.)
 The coronaviruses have thus evolved in cooperation with humans for about 10 000 years. Human farmers and coronaviruses are locked with each other "in a co-evolutionary dance". However, within the medical profession they have also argued that the different coronaviruses may instead be about 50 million years old, if the genetic-molecular clock is wrongly interpreted. I do not think that the technical age of the coronaviruses as such is very important. Maybe a prototype of the modern coronaviruses existed some 50 million years ago? And then a new version of the prototype took off some 10 000 years ago? It does not really matter. However, it is of extreme importance that the coronaviruses may have interacted with humans for about 10 000 years. If so, we have a case of "co-evolution" between humans and coronaviruses since the days of the first human agriculture on Earth.
It is also possible that it was the domestication of the first household animals that led to the proposed co-evolution between humans and coronaviruses.

If you’re interested; Wertheim et al. can be read: here.

So today we may have a Betacoronavirus. Let us also consider the question "what a virus is?" Is it a life-form? Or is it a non-living entity, that can reproduce itself, with the help of a host body? Like a Republican senator? Ultimately the question of "life" or "living" is a matter of where we draw the artificial line for our subjective idea of "life". (I would myself argue that "anything that can reproduce itself - even if it is with aid or with some kind of host as a supportive element - deserves in my view to be called "alive", even if it does not have an internally active system of digestion for the creation of new energy, or of physical movement.)

It is today clear that - for some reason, be it an accident or by intention - some humans were infected by a line of betacoronavirus sometime in the latter half of 2019. And it seems to be clear that it happened in China. The key question has to do with how we interpret this event. Is it an infection? Or is it a colonization? I believe that it is a colonization. It is a completely different event compared to a normal infection.

The human immune system would normally counter-attack and kill a random enemy like this new line of coronavirus. And this would happen because the virus would attack the human host in a very aggressive manner. The human immune system would be alerted in an early phase. And it would retaliate and kill the invading virus.

But, for whatever reason, this line of coronavirus is different. It interacts with the human immune system. It is perhaps not so aggressive. It tries not to wreak havoc within the body of the human host that is being colonized.
(Alarming change number 1.)

And it can also hide itself in the human host. Maybe in the brain-fluid? Or somewhere else? And the human immune system has a problem with the situation. "We have a Trojan horse somewhere within the city walls, but we do not know where it is! Anybody got a clue? Guys? Hello???"
(Alarming change number 2.)

What is happening is, of sorts, that humans are turning into a new kind of "host animal" for this new line of coronavirus. We are being colonised. It is not a regular infection. We have a "species-jump" from bats to humans. We are being used as an external digestive system for this peculiar life-form. (If a virus can be called a "life-form".) We have as a species been accidentally chosen by the coronavirus as an upgraded version of the ordinary bat.

The coronavirus does not have a brain, so it does not think. But it acts as if it was thinking, because of the evolutionary pressure it exerts in the reproductive process of the human species. When the coronavirus interacts with the human immune system "in a mild way" - when it is not getting slaughtered by the human host - it can reproduce itself and then stay hidden for some time. So, the human host is essentially being used as a system for the creation of new energy for the coronavirus. It is not a normal infection. This interaction between the human and the coronavirus will create a "domesticating force" on the collective of all humans as a species. What is best for the coronavirus? Should a human have big lungs or small lungs? Should the lungs be wet or dry? Should the lungs be warm or cold? Whatever situation that is best for the coronavirus will lead to the creation of an evolutionary pressure - much like a physical force - which will act upon all humans. In the end we will change as a species.

The evolutionary fitness of the individual human host will depend on his ability to tolerate the colonisation of the coronavirus. If he has a problem with his unwanted guest - and if his immune system kicks in - he will start getting very sick. If he does not have a problem - and if his immune system allows the coronavirus to spread, and to hide within his body - he will not become visibly affected (id est: "visibly infected").

If the condition for the coronavirus is not favorable, the interaction between the human immune system and the coronavirus will most likely lead to the death of the human host. So, all problematic humans will be subjected to negative evolutionary pressure. They will tend to die and to disappear from the genetic flow of the human species.

This will lead to a transformation of the human species as such. A new kind of human race will evolve. It will be a human race which can interact - without being negatively influenced - with the colonizing coronavirus. The new human race will begin forming immediately, but it will take many generations before it becomes stable as a natural form of new humanity.

We can call this new (and "pressure-cooked") race for "Homo Sapiens Coronensis".
But how many humans need to be killed off in the early stages of the co-evolutionary process to transform and domesticate the human race into a favorable host for the new coronavirus? Well, maybe it is only 2% at the bottom of the interactive relationship. But it could also be about 20%. Or it could be as much as 99,5% of the present human population. We do not know. Time will tell.

On the individual level it would be preferable if the evolutionary pressure from the new coronavirus was mild, and that a very low number of the human host individuals died in the encounter. But we do not know how bad the interaction will become. Maybe the coronavirus will have to "shave off" 99,99% of all humans in each and every one of the first 10 generations of humans in this co-evolutionary process? If so, we will have massive numbers of dead and dying for many years ahead, and we will be very close to an "extinction of the species-event". In absolute terms it will be a global disaster. It will be a threat to the survival of humans, and of our closely aligned and domesticated species (dogs, sheep, goats, cattle, horses, cats etc.).

If I’m right? How to act?
To begin with, we must divide all humans into two different groups.

A1; This group is composed of those humans that are "untouched" or "uncolonised" by the new coronavirus.

A2; This group is composed of those humans who are "invaded and colonized" by the new coronavirus. They are all carriers and must be treated as such for the rest of their natural lives.
(Or - at least - "until further notice". Maybe we can kill off all hidden coronaviruses in a human host body, if a medicine can be created at some time in the future. But that is not something that we can be sure of now.)

A2-I. An infected person is a "carrier".

A2-S. A sick person is a "carrier".

A2-D. A dead person is a "carrier".

A2-R. A recovered person is a "carrier".

R2-D", A droid.

All A2-persons, even if they have recovered (or especially so if they have recovered and would like to start kissing and hugging all their healthy family members) must live in separate "leper camps" or "leper cities", which we will call "a designated A2-camp" or "a designated A2-city".

The national state will have to designate all such communities for all recovered persons. They will not be prisoners locked in on the inside of their own homes, but they will be forced to carry GPS-devices.

The A2-persons will be free to move around within their designated A2-communities. If the coronavirus spreads too fast within some national states, the entire national state will have to be declared as an "A2-country". All external borders to an A2-country will have to be forcefully guarded by the neighboring A1-countries until further notice. By completely separating all A1-persons from all A2-persons we will will be able to buy time for the necessary scientific research to be performed within the upcoming 18 to 24 months.

How to go about?

(I.) No infected person can presently be declared as "free from the coronavirus". All humans are either A2 or A1, "touched" or "untouched", by the new coronavirus.

(II.) Martial law may have to be introduced for the foreseeable future in many countries of the world.

(III.) Private property may have to be sequestrated to perform necessary functions of the individual national states.

(IV.) Human rights may have to be subject to temporary restrictions or temporary reductions in situations of extreme emergency.

(V.) The human race is presently fighting a war against a relentless enemy that is trying to colonize and domesticate humanity and to turn it into a "host animal" for the beneficial use of the enemy.
Most - if not all - of the defensive measures of the individual national states are to be considered as acceptable from a moral point of view.

Once again; I could be wrong. If so I’ll happily dance around screaming I was wrong. Do with this information what you want. My recommendation is to try all further information against this theory. If the pieces start to fit; Get out of Dodge.