Make human civilization the world’s immune system
Editor’s note: This article comes from WeChat public account “Brain polar body” (ID: unity007), author I am a panda. Original Title “Living in the” Shadow “of Super Virus”
In the minds of many young people who are already vague about SARS, their impression of the word “virus” may still be a network virus such as “ransomware virus”. This new crown of virus rages again and gives a lesson to this world.
Virus, a creature that was found at the end of the 19th century and is smaller than bacteria, relies on parasites in living cells and replicates and proliferates. It brings to the world not only death and illness, but also indissolubility. shadow. In the face of the new crown virus this time, we once again witnessed the powerlessness of humans against the virus. In the face of viruses that have entered living cells and started to replicate themselves, in addition to using their own immune mechanisms to kill the virus, the role of most drugs is often to inhibit the virus’ self-replication ability, enhance the individual’s immune ability, and alleviate human immunity. Negative effects of the mechanism when it comes into play.
A virus such as smallpox, which is currently “completely eliminated,” is because it only takes humans as the host, it has a very low probability of re-infection after one infection, and it has several advantages in cross-immunization with vaccinia. Stop transmission between hosts by vaccination. In an ideal state, some viruses, such as measles, wild spinal cord, etc., which have only chosen humans as hosts and can be effectively prevented from spreading, may disappear in the future as time goes by and their protective capabilities are strengthened.
But at the same time, it also brings a hidden worry to the entire world. Since the virus that currently enters living cells is difficult to be “killed”, will there be a super virus that is highly efficient and harmful in the future? Human groups cause deadly harm?
A super virus that can KO humans from the Plague Company
At present, the so-called “super virus” is still a vague concept. Some people define it as a drug-resistant gene that makes the virus difficult to control. Some people call HIV a virus that acts on the human immune system and is difficult to rely on autoimmunity. Super virus.
Here we may refer to recent becauseA game called “Plague Company” that the new crown virus fired up to try to explore the possibility of super virus. In “Plague Company”, players are responsible for spreading the pathogen. The ultimate goal is to make the pathogen spread as widely as possible in the world and take more lives. At the same time, humans on the other side will continue to take protective measures to prevent the spread of pathogens. The game seems to teach people the logic of spreading infectious diseases and the harm to the world in a “negative textbook” approach. Previously, the CDC even interviewed game producers and contributed to the production team’s contribution to the spread of epidemiological knowledge.
![Super Virus that can KO humans from]()
Through the game mechanics of the Plague Company and actual cases, we can summarize some of the characteristics of the super virus.
In Plague Company, a settable condition for pathogens is “infectious”, that is, how exactly the pathogens are parasitic and spread, the faster the transmission speed and the stronger the ability, the less response time is given to humans. In the case of reality, viruses such as smallpox, measles, etc. that only select humans as hosts are better controlled than those that use animals as hosts. After all, we can isolate humans, but we cannot control the trajectory of bats.
Another condition that is closely related to infectiousness is lethality. Since the ultimate purpose of viruses and diseases is to cause damage to this world, naturally the higher the degree of threat to human health, the closer to the super virus. The same is true in the real world, such as herpes virus, rhinovirus, etc., the consequences are often just a cold stuffy nose, skin reactions, and often even rely on autoimmunity to fight without medical treatment. On the contrary, in many cases, the lethality rate is too high, which also reduces the ability of the virus to spread. A virus such as Ebola, which has a rapid onset, severe response, and high lethality rate, not only easily attracts people’s attention, but also limits human mobility when it develops , Thereby reducing its possibility of contact with the outside world.
Finally, there is latency. In the Plague Company, the involvement of various health organizations will be the biggest obstacle to the spread of the disease. Humans will work hard to develop various inhibitors and vaccines, and will try to block the chain of infection. Then the “response” plan is to make the incubation period of the virus longer and the symptoms of early reaction lighter, so that the virus will not attract human attention and spread wildly. The reason why this new crown virus is called “sly” is because the new crown virus has a lighter early response and is also infectious during the incubation period, which has won the “window period” for its spread.
Enter random mode: full of unexpected virus battle history
According to the logic above, the probability of a super virus being born is very low. With the current level of medical and scientific research, our levels of discovery, prevention, and suppression of viruses have all improved, and now we are all working together on world health security. The possibility of large-scale transmission of infectious diseases in the world is also declining—unless the so-called super virus is very “smart” and has almost no symptoms during the latent infection in the early stage. When the infectious rate reaches a certain level, “one-click onset” will be extremely affected. People’s health.
But this does not mean that we have completely eliminated the possibility of the emergence of super viruses. There may also be accidents in a series of seemingly rigorous infectious disease discovery, notification, collaborative prevention, drug vaccine development, and so on. Looking back at the history of viral fighting in the past, many times we are not so much fighting with viruses as we are with “accidental” fighting.
For example, an uncontrolled virus spreader is likely to make the infection worse by itself.
In the game, once organizations such as the Department of Health notice the presence of pathogens, the virus’s transmission efficiency will be greatly reduced. But the actual cases tell us that a “sly” communicator is even more terrible than a “sly” virus.
In the early 19th century, a maid named “Mary” came to New York to discuss her life. She was hardworking and skilled, but she could change jobs frequently. It turned out that since she came to the United States, she has often had a headache. She was worried that her employer would find that she could only leave her employer to find another job as soon as she became ill. Every time she leaves, a similar illness occurs in her employer’s home. In the end, this situation was valued by the government. Some doctors diagnosed Mary with typhoid fever, a highly infectious and extremely lethal disease. Health officials arrested Mary for quarantine, but Mary herself didn’t consider herself a carrier of the disease—because she recovered every few days after getting sick.
![Super Virus that can KO humans from the]()
After three years of quarantine and release, Mary still didn’t realize the seriousness of the problem, and under the premise of being strictly forbidden to engage in food-related work, she applied for the hospital canteen chef incognito—which caused the disease to spread. This time she was finally “isolated for life.” After the 69-year-old died of pneumonia, the doctor found a living “living typhoid bacteria” in her body. But because Mary was out of control before, many tragedies have already happened.
For example, although the virus is not intelligent, it has the possibility of mutation and resurrection.
In World War IThe outbreak of the Spanish flu caused huge damage on the earth with only 1.7 billion people at the time. Wikipedia shows that the Spanish flu caused about 500 million people at the time and 25 to 40 million people died. The terrible thing about Spanish flu is that the flu virus has mutated in a short period of time. The virus was mild in the beginning. Under the tension of wartime, most governments did not pay enough attention to it, but soon the Spanish flu evolved from a “cold” to a damage to the immune system. Quickly died within.
![Super Virus that can KO humans from]()
In the past ten years, when most people thought that the Spanish flu was already a thing of the past, scientists unearthed the bodies of the patients who were buried in permafrost that year. After research, they found that the H1N1 virus and the virus that raged around the world in 2009 The virus that caused the Spanish flu is homologous. This shows that whether it is the role of individual immunity, drug abuse or even just use, there is a possibility that the virus can mutate-more resistant, more adaptable to the environment, and more capable of harming …
This means that the drugs and vaccines we are studying are likely to lose their effect at some point. And the virus’s ability to survive at tens of degrees below zero has also created a worry about reducing the possibility-with global warming and melting glaciers, will some viruses from ancient times be “released”?
There are also viruses that target the human body.
It is not difficult to find that many times the “main force” against viruses also depends on our own immune system. Because of this, HIV, a virus that targets the immune system, is very scary. When the immune system is destroyed, it means that other viruses can come in and harm the health of the human body.
A virus that can damage the immune system in the future, or a virus that enters the brain such as rabies and hurts the brain, will change the way it is transmitted to make it more difficult to prevent?
From super virus to super human
In a common saying, the history of human civilization is also a history of virus resistance. Even if the probability of a super virus appearing is extremely low, the existence of something like a virus plus countless unknown possibilities will still become our enemy for a long time to come.
![Super Virus that can KO humans from]()
At present, although the new crown virus is highly contagious, its extremely low lethality and limited latent ability have determined that it cannot become a super virus, but is the same as those viruses that we have defeated in the past. An appropriate response will always be found.
In fact, the fantasy in countless science fiction works has told us that the outbreak of “super virus” may come from places that cannot be prevented-melting glaciers brought “ancient viruses”, and meteorite hit the earth with “alien viruses” … Although fantasy is nonsense, it also explains to a certain extent that human civilization itself is the immune system of this world. The best way to prevent the spread of an unknown super virus is to make us “super humans”-through scientific research The improvement of the level, multi-party cooperation, and the organization’s prevention and control capabilities keeps all accidents related to viruses within the controllable range as much as possible. Through good health habits and even possible gene editing in the future to improve the body’s own immune capabilities, through efficient collaboration between various tissues to find and respond to viruses as much as possible, and improve the ability to prevent and control viruses, so that more viruses like Smallpox only exists in the laboratory. In the shadow of the super virus, all of this will become a self-made light.
According to the logic above, the probability of a super virus being born is very low. With the current level of medical and scientific research, our levels of discovery, prevention, and suppression of viruses have all improved, and now we are all working together on world health security. The possibility of large-scale transmission of infectious diseases in the world is also declining—unless the so-called super virus is very “smart” and has almost no symptoms during the latent infection in the early stage. When the infectious rate reaches a certain level, “one-click onset” will be extremely affected. People’s health.
But this does not mean that we have completely eliminated the possibility of the emergence of super viruses. There may also be accidents in a series of seemingly rigorous infectious disease discovery, notification, collaborative prevention, drug vaccine development, and so on. Looking back at the history of viral fighting in the past, many times we are not so much fighting with viruses as we are with “accidental” fighting.
For example, an uncontrolled virus spreader is likely to make the infection worse by itself.
In the game, once organizations such as the Department of Health notice the presence of pathogens, the virus’s transmission efficiency will be greatly reduced. But the actual cases tell us that a “sly” communicator is even more terrible than a “sly” virus.
In the early 19th century, a maid named “Mary” came to New York to discuss her life. She was hardworking and skilled, but she could change jobs frequently. It turned out that since she came to the United States, she has often had a headache. She was worried that her employer would find that she could only leave her employer to find another job as soon as she became ill. Every time she leaves, a similar illness occurs in her employer’s home. In the end, this situation was valued by the government. Some doctors diagnosed Mary with typhoid fever, a highly infectious and extremely lethal disease. Health officials arrested Mary for quarantine, but Mary herself didn’t consider herself a carrier of the disease—because she recovered every few days after getting sick.
After three years of quarantine and release, Mary still didn’t realize the seriousness of the problem, and under the premise of being strictly forbidden to engage in food-related work, she applied for the hospital canteen chef incognito—which caused the disease to spread. This time she was finally “isolated for life.” After the 69-year-old died of pneumonia, the doctor found a living “living typhoid bacteria” in her body. But because Mary was out of control before, many tragedies have already happened.
For example, although the virus is not intelligent, it has the possibility of mutation and resurrection.
In World War IThe outbreak of the Spanish flu caused huge damage on the earth with only 1.7 billion people at the time. Wikipedia shows that the Spanish flu caused about 500 million people at the time and 25 to 40 million people died. The terrible thing about Spanish flu is that the flu virus has mutated in a short period of time. The virus was mild in the beginning. Under the tension of wartime, most governments did not pay enough attention to it, but soon the Spanish flu evolved from a “cold” to a damage to the immune system. Quickly died within.
In the past ten years, when most people thought that the Spanish flu was already a thing of the past, scientists unearthed the bodies of the patients who were buried in permafrost that year. After research, they found that the H1N1 virus and the virus that raged around the world in 2009 The virus that caused the Spanish flu is homologous. This shows that whether it is the role of individual immunity, drug abuse or even just use, there is a possibility that the virus can mutate-more resistant, more adaptable to the environment, and more capable of harming …
This means that the drugs and vaccines we are studying are likely to lose their effect at some point. And the virus’s ability to survive at tens of degrees below zero has also created a worry about reducing the possibility-with global warming and melting glaciers, will some viruses from ancient times be “released”?
There are also viruses that target the human body.
It is not difficult to find that many times the “main force” against viruses also depends on our own immune system. Because of this, HIV, a virus that targets the immune system, is very scary. When the immune system is destroyed, it means that other viruses can come in and harm the health of the human body.
A virus that can damage the immune system in the future, or a virus that enters the brain such as rabies and hurts the brain, will change the way it is transmitted to make it more difficult to prevent?