Friday, March 6, 2020

Science



My next column in The Everett Herald:
By now, Trump’s response to Covid-19 has gone viral: incomprehension of the science, contradicting the CDC, making up numbers, blaming President Obama, blaming Democrats, blaming the press, making it all about him, taking unwarranted credit: stopping flights from China, for example, which never fully stopped. His incoherence is revelatory, as is his greater concern for how it makes him look than for public health. There’s little to add. Happily, smarter people are still doing their jobs.  
So let’s talk more generally about viruses, which are actually pretty interesting; potentially able, someday, to save more lives than they take. To appreciate them, it helps to know basic genetics and to recognize that evolution is a thing; which doesn’t describe Mike Pence, Trump’s choice to wrangle America’s coronavirus response. But God chose Trump and Trump chose Pence, so let’s move on. 
Fact: in the way recipes are not food, viruses are not alive. Unlike bacteria, which are, they have no metabolism, can’t reproduce on their own, don’t, in fact, “do” anything. That’s because they’re nothing but protein-wrapped bits of DNA or RNA, the molecules responsible for speciation, reproduction, and evolution. There’s disagreement on how viruses came to be. Based on medical school facts and personal extrapolations, this is my concept:  
Those delicate, helical strands of genetic information are fragile. In the process of replication during cell division, sometimes pieces break off. And sometimes DNA mis-reproduces the strands they’re in the business of copying, causing mutations. 
Stuff happens. There are, in fact, areas of DNA in our chromosomes that don’t appear to do anything. Just stuck there after some mistake or other, doing neither harm nor creating an evolutionarily-impactful change. Since we have countless combinations of nucleotides (the “building blocks” of DNA), and since these events occur comparatively often, some broken-off chunks occasionally are the sort that can code the production of a protein. Which is what DNA and RNA are there to do: produce proteins. Useful ones, ideally. 
If, by happenstance, those broken-off bits contain codes for proteins that are inclined to enwrap them, you have genetic material wrapped in a protein shell: a virus. If the protein capsule is attachable to a living cell, human or otherwise, and if, in attaching, it’s able to be incorporated into the cell, wholly or just its DNA or RNA, you have a potential pathogen. Mathematically, highly unlikely. But, given billions of events, it’s enough.  
The acquired material might just sit there. Or – another improbable coincidence – the original breakup may have included preexisting coded instructions to the cell’s reproductive organelles, causing that cell to start replicating viral DNA/RNA rather than its own. It all depends on the nature of those detached pieces. Presumably, most of the time, nothing of that happens. Rarely, it creates advantageous mutations. (Most mutations happen to DNA randomly or from non-viral influences.) 
When it turns a cell’s machinery into a manufacturing plant gone wild, a gazillion virus copies burst out of the cell, invade and kill other specifically receptive cells. Without intention, you might say. Because they’re not alive. Nevertheless, until your immune system figures it out (sometimes antivirals help) you’re sick.  
Scientists (people like those Trump eliminated from government before Covid-19 showed up, and whom he’s been mostly ignoring and mischaracterizing since) are using viruses, the kind that attach to chromosomes and sit there, to treat genetic diseases: by attaching “good” genes to them and turning them loose to replace “bad” ones inside human cells. There’s potential for preventing some cancers, too. Science: a good thing. Including climate science. Who knew, right?  
In summary, viruses may result from the processes that led to the formation, behavior, and fragility of DNA and RNA, which then led to those molecules acquiring the ability to code and produce proteins, which led to combinations of proteins that have the ability to harness energy and reproduce: life. 
That the process is imperfect, making unexpected combinations randomly, is what leads to changes which, when of survival benefit, fuel evolution. If those random events are useless, nothing happens; or, as we’ve seen, sometimes they become what we know as viruses.  
Hopefully it won’t matter that Trump doesn’t understand and Pence doesn’t believe any of this, as long as some on his team, and governors like ours, do.  
One more thing, off topic but timely: Let’s hope Trump’s already-iffy Taliban peace deal holds. If so, good for him. Two words to keep in mind, though: North Korea. 
[Image source]

8 comments:

  1. Good Column,

    You can lead a horse to water ect.

    Guess we couldn't of had a worse administration to deal with a outbreak of a new virus.or even any health issue. When magical thinking is the order of the day, and those that think illness is due to sin---- it is easy for those that think that way to brush off the ill.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I was hoping that you would choose to write about Covid-19 and help us understand some basic information about viruses. Perhaps a follow-on would cover some of the challenges and risks of creating an effective vaccine. Trump, unable to manage his narcissistic urges, seems to think that a safe and effective vaccine is just around the corner — and entirely due to his incredible leadership, of course.

    I'm imagining an analogous casting of Trump as the viral pathogen, harnessing the machinery of the body politic. Doesn't really work, but we desperately need a vaccine for that, too.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I fear der Furor is leading us into a possible mugging by reality, which is utterly indifferent to polls, or ratings, or stock prices, or owning the Libs, or ...

    ReplyDelete
  4. That's a great explanation man. Even I followed along and understood it.

    Let's just get out of Iraq and Afghanistan. Our work isn't done there.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Reminds me of why I failed, I mean, had to take Micro twice...

    Frank "flunked the Wasserman Test"

    ReplyDelete
  6. I have a friend who is a virologist.
    Yours wasn't a bad explanation.
    I think I'll have her explain surgery to me now.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Great explanation of the nature of viruses. Thank you!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Thankful to read another well thought, wise, informative, intelligent, descriptive and timely narrative of the virological breakdown or buildup, of the present challenge to the respiratory systems of our population posed by bats and people. Thanks, Sid, for your timely insight and critical understanding of both the bat-s__t in the white house and the scientific explanation of bat-s__t viral exportation from China. Always an amazing and awesome alacrity of analytic annotation!

    ReplyDelete

Comments back, moderated. Preference given for those who stay on topic.

Popular posts