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It comes as a wolf in sheep’s clothing: once in the body, it tricks cells into replicating itself. For a minority this means a hospital stay or worse. @whippletom traces the viral journey of coronavirus https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/how-coronavirus-affects-the-body-spreads-and-kills-zp9w96pxm">https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/h...
Day 0: Infection
Viruses are unimaginably small. At 90 nanometres long, if you laid 1,000 coronaviruses end to end they would span a human hair. If you packed a couple of trillion together, they would fill a pinhead http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/how-coronavirus-affects-the-body-spreads-and-kills-zp9w96pxm">https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/h...
Viruses are unimaginably small. At 90 nanometres long, if you laid 1,000 coronaviruses end to end they would span a human hair. If you packed a couple of trillion together, they would fill a pinhead http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/how-coronavirus-affects-the-body-spreads-and-kills-zp9w96pxm">https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/h...
Day 0: Infection
The instant they leave a body, the clock is ticking
Lots of things can kill the virus, including newspaper ink. If it were not for the fact that we shed so many of them, they would never spread at all. But viruses know this and they go for quantity over quality
The instant they leave a body, the clock is ticking
Lots of things can kill the virus, including newspaper ink. If it were not for the fact that we shed so many of them, they would never spread at all. But viruses know this and they go for quantity over quality
Day 1: Replication
The virus is nothing without you. From the moment it enters your body it must infect to survive. It must find a cell, fool it and then hijack its genetic apparatus for its own ends
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/how-coronavirus-affects-the-body-spreads-and-kills-zp9w96pxm">https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/h...
The virus is nothing without you. From the moment it enters your body it must infect to survive. It must find a cell, fool it and then hijack its genetic apparatus for its own ends
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/how-coronavirus-affects-the-body-spreads-and-kills-zp9w96pxm">https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/h...
Day 1: Replication
A coronavirus does not have DNA, it has RNA - a closely related genetic material. In our bodies, RNA transfers instructions from DNA, to make the proteins that keep us going. That is what this RNA is about to do. Except what it is going to make is more virus
A coronavirus does not have DNA, it has RNA - a closely related genetic material. In our bodies, RNA transfers instructions from DNA, to make the proteins that keep us going. That is what this RNA is about to do. Except what it is going to make is more virus
Day 5: Incubation
We all know the symptoms. A cough, a fever, tiredness, headache, shortness of breath. Most - unlike with colds - won’t get a runny nose, but some will
For 80% of people, that will be it. For about 20%, though, it will get a lot worse
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/how-coronavirus-affects-the-body-spreads-and-kills-zp9w96pxm">https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/h...
We all know the symptoms. A cough, a fever, tiredness, headache, shortness of breath. Most - unlike with colds - won’t get a runny nose, but some will
For 80% of people, that will be it. For about 20%, though, it will get a lot worse
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/how-coronavirus-affects-the-body-spreads-and-kills-zp9w96pxm">https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/h...
Day 14: Admitted to hospital
There is a physiological reason why you cough when you have a cold. It is because you need to bring up phlegm. There is another reason though, not contradictory to the first. It is because the virus wants you to cough https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/how-coronavirus-affects-the-body-spreads-and-kills-zp9w96pxm">https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/h...
There is a physiological reason why you cough when you have a cold. It is because you need to bring up phlegm. There is another reason though, not contradictory to the first. It is because the virus wants you to cough https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/how-coronavirus-affects-the-body-spreads-and-kills-zp9w96pxm">https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/h...
Day 14 onwards: Infection ends
The symptoms have stopped and, probably, you are no longer infectious. Within your body there is probably a strong cohort of antibodies, each with a structure that automatically latches on to coronavirus, flagging it for destruction
The symptoms have stopped and, probably, you are no longer infectious. Within your body there is probably a strong cohort of antibodies, each with a structure that automatically latches on to coronavirus, flagging it for destruction
Day 27: Deaths
At the very end, the enemy may not be the virus but yourself
In the body’s rush to send in defensive cells, blood vessels can overload. Fluid can leak into the lungs. Pneumonia develops: people stop being able to breathe for themselves
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/how-coronavirus-affects-the-body-spreads-and-kills-zp9w96pxm">https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/h...
At the very end, the enemy may not be the virus but yourself
In the body’s rush to send in defensive cells, blood vessels can overload. Fluid can leak into the lungs. Pneumonia develops: people stop being able to breathe for themselves
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/how-coronavirus-affects-the-body-spreads-and-kills-zp9w96pxm">https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/h...
Day 27: Deaths
This response is called a cytokine storm, and it is almost certainly behind the most severe cases. It is also the reason why, in what was once a conference centre in London’s Docklands, 4,000 beds lie ready and waiting
Read more here: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/how-coronavirus-affects-the-body-spreads-and-kills-zp9w96pxm">https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/h...
This response is called a cytokine storm, and it is almost certainly behind the most severe cases. It is also the reason why, in what was once a conference centre in London’s Docklands, 4,000 beds lie ready and waiting
Read more here: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/how-coronavirus-affects-the-body-spreads-and-kills-zp9w96pxm">https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/h...
