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Our Q&A with @MoNscience begins now: Your questions about #COVID19/ #coronavirus answered https://twitter.com/NatGeo/status/1248404843196112896
Great question and great timing! This morning, we published a deep dive into coronavirus vaccine development https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/2020/04/why-coronavirus-vaccine-could-take-way-longer-than-a-year/
The @WHO lists 62 candidates, but experts say twice as many might be underway worldwide. The thing they need most: time. https://twitter.com/miphz/status/1248406175202197505?s=20
The @WHO lists 62 candidates, but experts say twice as many might be underway worldwide. The thing they need most: time. https://twitter.com/miphz/status/1248406175202197505?s=20
Scientists need time to make sure these candidates work (i.e., can generate a beneficial immune response).
The good news: Some COVID-19 patients are developing immunity! That's a good sign for a potential vaccine, but we need to see how long this immunity lasts for the novel strain. With cold-causing coronaviruses, immunity lasts for a year or two. https://twitter.com/TamaraD57123258/status/1248410929659707392?s=20
(Note: Homeopathic vaccines are not the same as conventional vaccines, the latter of which have a long history of success.)
Nope! We can actually use those mutations to track the outbreak's spread, especially with cases that are missed due to the lack of tests. See our story by @SarahE_Richards https://on.natgeo.com/39V9jJH https://twitter.com/busralcinar/status/1248407634111131648?s=20
"Mutations" get a bad rap. Most mutations, including the ones with viruses, are benign. Also, living things are constantly mutating without harm being caused. You're mutating. Corn is mutating.
Every now and then, a germ like a coronavirus might pick up a mutation that leads to an outbreak, but that's a rare event. Plus, pandemics are more dependent on how our societies exist (i.e., urbanization, global travel) than on random mutations.
At this moment with COVID-19, it's hard to say, though everyone should check out this story from @NinaStrochlic and @rileydchampine about how the Spanish flu progressed through American cities https://on.natgeo.com/2JWc9U0 https://twitter.com/PashupatiN0th07/status/1248631021865553926?s=20
If I ( @monscience) was forced to guess, I would bet that COVID-19 sticks around, either as multiple phases or as a seasonal disease.
That's based on what virologists and epidemiologists are saying about past experiences with human immunity to coronaviruses (cold-causing varieties in particular) and because COVID-19 is so contagious.
Nope, that's very wrong! Don't do that! Studies have shown coronaviruses (including the novel one) is "highly stable" at 4 degrees Celsius, the typical temperature for a refrigerator. https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanmic/article/PIIS2666-5247(20)30003-3/fulltext https://twitter.com/ureshitanoshiak/status/1248627918022029312?s=20
On the opposite end of the temperature spectrum, there are suggestions that the novel coronavirus can also survive high heat and high humidity, as evidenced by this study about possible transmission in a bath house. https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2763473
For more on how coronavirus survives, check out these two stories by @Sarah_Gibbens
Will warming spring temperatures slow the coronavirus outbreak? https://on.natgeo.com/2VhpKdX
Why soap is preferable to bleach in the fight against coronavirus https://on.natgeo.com/3b42pmE
Will warming spring temperatures slow the coronavirus outbreak? https://on.natgeo.com/2VhpKdX
Why soap is preferable to bleach in the fight against coronavirus https://on.natgeo.com/3b42pmE
Coronavirus spreads primarily through respiratory droplets, or basically anything wet that comes from our noses and mouths. That could be the secretions from a cough or sneeze (sputum) OR... https://twitter.com/MartianManish/status/1248629291849404416?s=20
It could be the water vapor that we exude while breathing or talking, as explained by Nat Geo's @AmyMcKeever. People expel about 600 respiratory droplets per minute of talking. https://on.natgeo.com/3c58C1R
This idea has been making the rounds, based on a single study from China. But so far, the evidence is inconclusive. https://theconversation.com/coronavirus-are-people-with-blood-group-a-really-at-higher-risk-of-catching-covid-19-134181 https://twitter.com/agraybill2pt6/status/1248408506815770626?s=20
In 20 percent of cases, it does a bunch of very bad things. I would check out this story by @AmyMcKeever https://on.natgeo.com/2y8WTAo https://twitter.com/busralcinar/status/1248408146600587264?s=20
