Could this be actually happening?

[CreativeWriter1259]

Thinking about the latest strain, of the COVID virus, and how no one knows how deadly this maybe, has gotten me to thinking.
Feel free to tell me if I have "gone off the deep end".

IN thinking about COVID, I am remembering the original series episode: MIRI

The episode in which the Enterprise comes across an Earth-like planet, inhabited ONLY by children.

BY the end of the episode, Doctor McCoy, and Spock come to the conclusion that the reason, for the planets condition is that its former inhabitants developed a strain of viruses, with the goal being to prolong life, and build immunity, to various diseases.

Just one problem. While the viruses worked, VERY well, on children, when a child reached puberty, the viruses caused "beyond rapid" aging.

This, and the episode where the crew discovers that a starship captain has been using 23rd century phrasers to aid a group, possibly known as the "coms", in a civil war with a group called the "yangs".

As Doctor McCoy again, learns, the population did, in the distant past, create new viruses, for the purpose of extending life, and building immunity.

However, at the cost of exterminating all civilization, and leaving the survivors to live like cave-men.

While these were scripts, for television episodes, COULD it be that COVID is the "first wave" of this very type of biological warfare, which destroyed two, science fiction, civilizations?

Why else would it be that, just as each "variation", of COVID comes under control, that a new "variation" "pops up"? Could we be heading for the scripts of both MIRI and the one about the renegade starship commander?

HOW can the public tell the difference?

 

[publiusr]

Genetics always scared me more than atomics. It is bound to have its own Ed Tellers.

If this did come from a lab, it is a Challenger moment for virology. Feynman didn’t have to worry about being censored from the web.

Newton was a very strange cat. We’re he alive now, no one would have bothered to look at his Principia. Or worse, you could only find it in the JSE which might be a death sentence for its scholarship.

 

[Deks]

Lets see... with humans being the leading cause of climate change and due to (completely unnecessary) animal factory farming, they end up going into the wilderness (clearing more space for industrial activities) and end up in contact with wild animals that they usually wouldn't be interacting with ('interaction' in this particular instance is a very mild description when you consider the horrors that humans do to animals in general).

Because humans have a very large genetic variation, it stands to reason a virus or bacteria would evolve to such a fast degree where different viral variations would be evolving faster.

Incidentally, a computer algorithm from 1974 did a study/projection on what might happen if we didn't change our ways... excessive climate change, deforestation, pollution, pandemics with ever increasing frequencies.

MIT then conducted an updated study in 2012 stating that a global economic collapse will occur as a result of all this by 2030 - which should be interesting.
Exxon knew about climate change back in 1970-ies (probably from the original study done by that algorithm), and yet, they did NOTHING to avoid problems down the line because it would have probably impacted their business model in a negative capacity.

To top it off, our energy production is still largely based off outdated and excessively dirty power sources (fossil fuels)... which also receive MASSIVE amounts in subsidies every single year... nevermind the fact we had renewable options dating back to 1970-ies that could have replaced our reliance on fossil fuels and oil had we even tried.

When it comes to viruses and bacteria... well, one of the leading cause of bacteria creating variations which are resistant to antibiotics is (for example) overuse of antibiotics in factory farmed animals (it was just one of the reasons I went vegan about 5 years ago - the primary one being the needless breeding, enslavement, tortue and killing of sentient creatures, folllowed by detrimental effects on ones health and overall damage to the biosphere).

Humans also have a tendency of overusing antibiotics for relatively simple things which can also lead to increased antibiotic resistance we are seeing today.

On top of that, Vitamin D has been found to affect both innate and adaptive immunity in humans, and that people with generally high levels of Vit D (much higher than what is frequently touted as 'normal') in their bodies do in fact recover from COVID and are less likely to develop issues which could lead to death.
Vitamin D deficiency affects a huge segment of the global population, and incidentally, its these people who end up with most problems.
Vit D recommended daily allowance has also been grossly miscalculated according to several peer-review studies published in the last decade and ended up being 10-20x lower compared to where they should be (which the Endocrine Society and most doctors have YET to revise - they should be at minimum 8800IU - 10 000 IU per day - quantities of which can mainly be gotten from suntanning without sunscreen for 10 mins if you have a lighter skin tone [darker skin tone people would need anywhere between 2-4x more sunlight exposure] or a proper supplement [oh and Magnesium is extremely important here which helps metabolize Vit D] - food is an extremely poor source of Vitamin D).

Its hardly a silver bullet... but if global population levels of Vit-D would be brought up to at least 3x above what is considered 'sufficient' (at the moment this is about 50 nmol/l)... around 182 nmol/l, there is good chance that global mortality rates from all causes would drop significantly and improve overall outcomes.

But putting that to the side, we really need to change our habits... ranging from our energy production, industry, housing, biosphere protection/fixing, recycling, etc. ... solutions existed for a long time... our social and economic systems are completely outdated so relying on these outdated institutions to figure out a permanent solution is hardly what I would call 'sane'.

But overall, no I don't think COVID is a first wave of 'biological warfare' that will eventually destroy us.
This problem is caused by multiple existing (and completely stupid) patterns of behavior which stem from an outdated system.

Look at the present behavior though... we have ignorant people in positions of power who actively IGNORE advice from scientists... and then go on to send mixed messages to the general population resulting in confusion at best... coupled with lack of expore to relevant general education (basic methods of science in the general population), critical thinking and problem solving which are contributing toward lack of adequate protection measures beingused by people (wearing of masks and not adhering to social distancing) to surging COVID infections and mutations.

 

[Owain Taggart]

Why else would it be that, just as each "variation", of COVID comes under control, that a new "variation" "pops up"? Could we be heading for the scripts of both MIRI and the one about the renegade starship commander?

It's called mutation. What you have are strains that mutate to overcome their new limitations. Some strains mutate more quickly than we can provide protection for, and some end up being more devastating while some more mild. Covid has actually been around for a very long time. Even the 1918 pandemic was a SARS-Covid, which took up to 5 years to completely eradicate, and they also dealt with multiple waves just as we are now. There's no conspiracy at work, just the plain nature of how viruses evolve at work. It will eventually become less virulent over time. It would certainly help if more people were following precautions.

 

[Asbo Zaprudder]

Yep, evolution in action.

 

[Sci]

While these were scripts, for television episodes, COULD it be that COVID is the "first wave" of this very type of biological warfare, which destroyed two, science fiction, civilizations?

Why else would it be that, just as each "variation", of COVID comes under control, that a new "variation" "pops up"?

No.

For one thing: Absolutely no country has benefited from COVID-19. Some countries have managed it better than others, but it has had a negative impact on every country. Any government with the level of wealth it would take to develop a biological weapon like this would recognize that it would be shooting itself in the foot.

Setting that aside:

As others have noted, viruses mutate. That's what they do, and it happens frequently. The influenza virus mutates into a new strain every year, for instance, and that's why you need to take a new flu vaccine every year.

COVID-19 keeps mutating because it reproduces quickly and spreads easily, and because its long incubation period means it doesn't kills its hosts (us) before it's had a chance to reproduce and spread.

The fact that a new strain has popped up is entirely consistent with what epidemiologists have been saying for a while, which is that new strains will develop out of old strains if too many people are unvaccinated. If the overwhelming majority of a population is vaccinated, the virus can't spread, infect, reproduce, mutate, and spread again; but if a large percentage of the population remans unvaxxed, they have lots of new opportunities to mutate.

Omicron seems to have developed in Africa. The world has done a piss-poor job distributing the vaccine to most of the people living in the developing world, and this was a predictable result of what has come to be called "vaccine apartheid."