So, then, what can modern medicine do to stop viruses? Not much! (when compared to, say, bacteria). Once the virus encoded information has entered the host, there really is not much modern-medicine can do inside the cells of the host. Our technology is not that advanced to stop ‘active’ genetic material. But, what we can do is to stop the viruses from attaching to the host in the first place. Let us take the soccer ball analogy. Soccer fans know that soccer balls produced by one brand has differences to another brand. Mainly, the exterior design of the ball is different. Even the official FIFA soccer balls from one world cup to another is different.
The exterior design is extremely important in attaching to a host. A hosts’ cell has structures on its outside, which us used for communication. The exterior of viruses are designed to fit around these structures perfectly. It is like a space shuttle docking onto the International Space Station. If the shuttle docking port is not designed correctly, it cannot attach to the Space Station. Therefore, if we treat a patient with compounds which cover the docking port of the cells, or even the docking ports of the virus, then the virus cannot attach and, therefore, cannot reproduce.
The second, and maybe the most successful, is the use of vaccinations. The way vaccinations function is by training the hosts own immune system to identify the virus. Quite literally giving your immune system a Face-Recognition ability, proving so accurate it can immediately distinguish between one soccer ball type to another. In some cases, the immune system can be trained with this super-ability by only giving it pieces of the soccer ball. In other cases, the immune systems are trained with soccer balls with no spaghetti fillings (therefore no actual infection can ever occur). And interestingly, some other virus vaccines are actual intact viruses, but with an outdated and old encoding that results in its’ ability to reproduce very poor.
But, with any of these vaccine types, the host immune system can use the facial recognition system to detect the viruses, and then to destroy the viruses in a natural way without the need for further artificial medical treatments.
There really isn’t any better way in treating viruses than using vaccines. Without the facial recognition super-power ability of our immune systems, some viruses are just too powerful for the body to defend. No matter how many anti-oxidants, or vitamins, or anti-bacterial food we eat, these all will not defend us from a non-living, natural-USB-stick virus [anti-oxidants and anti-bacterial food can protect us from living organisms only].
This brings us to the recent Wuhan coronavirus outbreak. This virus, like SARS and MERS, has shown the world on how powerful these small information-filled protein balls can really be. It infects the cells of the sinuses and respiratory system. The common cold can be due to these imposters. Therefore, once infected, we spread them to each-other via our saliva, our nasal liquids, our coughs, our dirty tissues, our hand-shakes, our kisses. Our very presence becomes an issue. China, at the moment, is on a complete shut-down, forcing people to stay at home, barricading entire cities. At first, this sounds extreme. But, understanding the virus, makes one realise that this action is quite a necessity.
The world is not individual states anymore, we are global. There is no shutting down airports to one country anymore. Economies must continue, business must continue, international politics cannot stop to a simple illness. Especially when we are talking about China, and maybe even the USA. The USA and the leaders of the EU, France and Germany, are too busy with economies and political issues, to act quickly against the illness. It is thus rather Interesting that these are the Western countries which the virus has spread to first.
In an outbreak, we must quickly isolate the potential infected patients, and prevent the spread as quickly as possible. There cannot be any delays.
We need to also ask the important question, where did the new virus come from? We need to know this so we can, hopefully, prevent its spread to us humans again. The coronavirus family is well known to be infecting many types of animals, many types of mammals. It is also known to ‘jump species’ from time to time. Jumping species is when the soccer ball exterior has some very small design change, which gives it an ability to also dock into the docking port of a new animal specie’s cells. I am sure this happens more often than we think, but we do have quite strong immune systems – we most likely get a simple cold.
However, logically, there will always be the probability of getting an outbreak now and again. However, this is extremified by our ever-increasing human population, globalisation and economic growth, and the need to keep expanding into more natural habitats. This human behaviour, especially combined with the Chinese culture of eating any creature, is causing the increases in viral jumping species behaviour we are witnessing.
Viruses will not go away; they will always remain as long as there is life on earth. As their natural hosts are depleted, they will jump species to newer, and more plentiful hosts. In the irony of life, viruses are the immune system of the Earth.
