ROME (Reuters) – The new coronavirus is losing its potency and has become much less lethal, a senior Italian doctor said on Sunday.
“In reality, the virus clinically no longer exists in Italy,” said Alberto Zangrillo, the head of the San Raffaele Hospital in Milan in the northern region of Lombardy, which has borne the brunt of Italy’s coronavirus contagion.
“The swabs that were performed over the last 10 days showed a viral load in quantitative terms that was absolutely infinitesimal compared to the ones carried out a month or two months ago,” he told RAI television.
Italy has the third highest death toll in the world from COVID-19, with 33,415 people dying since the outbreak came to light on Feb. 21. It has the sixth highest global tally of cases at 233,019.
However new infections and fatalities have fallen steadily in May and the country is unwinding some of the most rigid lockdown restrictions introduced anywhere on the continent.
Zangrillo said some experts were too alarmist about the prospect of a second wave of infections and politicians needed to take into account the new reality.
“We’ve got to get back to being a normal country,” he said. “Someone has to take responsibility for terrorizing the country.”
The government urged caution, saying it was far too soon to claim victory.
“Pending scientific evidence to support the thesis that the virus has disappeared … I would invite those who say they are sure of it not to confuse Italians,” Sandra Zampa, an undersecretary at the health ministry, said in a statement.
“We should instead invite Italians to maintain the maximum caution, maintain physical distancing, avoid large groups, to frequently wash their hands and to wear masks.”
A second doctor from northern Italy told the national ANSA news agency that he was also seeing the coronavirus weaken.
“The strength the virus had two months ago is not the same strength it has today,” said Matteo Bassetti, head of the infectious diseases clinic at the San Martino hospital in the city of Genoa.
“It is clear that today the COVID-19 disease is different.”
Paul Plante says
COVID is an RNA, not a DNA virus.
When a DNA virus replicates, there is a literal proof-reading function that ensures the copies will be the same as the original.
Not so with RNA – there is no proofreading during replication which leads to a host of mutations, as we can see from this excerpt from the Virology Blog entitled “The error-prone ways of RNA synthesis” on 10 May 2009, to wit:
But the RNA polymerases of RNA viruses are the kings of errors – these enzymes screw up as often as one time for every 1,000 – 100,000 nucleotides polymerized.
This high rate of mutation comes from the lack of proofreading ability in RNA polymerases.
These enzymes make mistakes, but they can’t correct them.
Therefore the mutations remain in the newly synthesized RNA.
Given a typical RNA viral genome of 10,000 bases, a mutation frequency of 1 in 10,000 corresponds to an average of 1 mutation in every replicated genome.
If a single cell infected with poliovirus produces 10,000 new virus particles, this error rate means that in theory, about 10,000 new viral mutants have been produced.
This enormous mutation rate explains why RNA viruses evolve so readily.
For example, it is the driving force behind influenza viral antigenic drift.
Here is a stunning example of the consequences of RNA polymerase error rates.
Tens of millions of humans are infected with HIV-1, and every infected person produces billions of viral genomes per day, each with one mutation.
Over 1016 genomes are produced daily on the entire planet.
As a consequence, thousands of mutants arise by chance every day that are resistant to every combination of antiviral compounds in use or in development.
end quotes
Big words, perhaps, but high school science, nonetheless.
COVID was producing different strains that were documented right from the get-go, whether the famous TV doctor Fauci was aware of that or not, consumed as he was in getting his make-up just right so he could look dapper in those hot TV spotlights on national TV.
And in New York, not surprisingly, Democratic Socialist governor Andy “KING” Cuomo is taking credit for having whipped COVID single-handedly with his social isolation policies.
Andy, Andy, he’s da man, if anybody can put the whup’ass on COVID, Andy can.
On a side note, my barber got turned in for cutting people’s hair in his driveway (Albany cops, many of them) by some “concerned citizen” looking out for our collective well-being, and consequently got a letter from “THE POLICE STATE” in Albany informing him that if he did not cease and desist this highly dangerous action of cutting people’s hair outside, “THE POLICE STATE” was going to fine him $10,000 and take away his barber’s license.
Isn’t it good to know “THE POLICE STATE” is there for us when we need it.
Too bad “THE POLICE STATE” wasn’t there for all the business owners down in Albany when the animal-like savages were rioting and burning and looting, but hey, priorities are priorities, and cutting hair outside in one’s driveway is a far more serious social problem than is burning down a city.