COVID Alphabet Soup
When it comes to reading Nature’s code we are illiterate
Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta. Now comes the Omicron variant. In case you are wondering why we skipped some of the letters in the Greek alphabet — we didn’t. Thousands of variants have developed over the nearly two years since COVID-19 (the disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus) was first discovered in a cluster of patients in China who were experiencing fever and a shortness of breath. The variants I listed are just those currently denoted by the World Health Organization (WHO) as “variants of concern”, based on their possible higher transmissibility or because they are known to cause a more severe disease.
Type “COVID lineage” in Google and look at some of the images. As an example, the figure below tracks the evolution of just one strain of COVID in the 3rd wave of the epidemic in one country — Malaysia.
We tend to think of evolution as a random process, but that is simply a misunderstanding. If you read what evolutionary biologists tracking the COVID-19 evolution say, it seems much more like a chess match. Here are a few quotes: “Scientists are searching for ways to predict the virus’s next moves”. “I think the virus is still looking for solutions to adapt to the human host.”. “The virus was evolving to evade immunity”. “There may be multiple directions that the virus can go in … and the virus hasn’t committed.” Perhaps as Dr. Michael Laitman wrote in August 2020, COVID is actually sophisticated software designed to evolve and change not itself but us?
Coincidence is God’s way of remaining anonymous.
— Albert Einstein
Omicron’s rapid spread in South Africa is what worried researchers most. Researchers suspect that Omicron has already found a way to dodge human immunity, including both people infected by earlier variants and those who have been vaccinated. Based on the available data, epidemiologists estimate that Omicron can infect three to six times as many people as Delta. They are also concerned that Omicron’s many spike mutations — particularly in the region that recognizes receptors on human cells — suggest that the variant will blunt the potency of neutralizing antibodies. However more time and data will be required before we know for certain how dangerous the variant is and how resistant it may be to existing COVID vaccinations and boosters.
“We are going to beat this virus!”
Here is some excerpts from what US president Joe Biden said about the Omicron variant on November 21, 2021. “When I was elected, I said I would always be honest with you. A year ago, America was floundering against the first variant of COVID. We beat that variant significantly, and then we got hit by a far more powerful threat: the Delta variant. But we took action, and now we’re seeing deaths from Delta come down. We’ll fight the –- you know, and –- look, we’re going to fight and beat this new variant as well.”
On the same day 456,978 new cases of COVID were reported worldwide, Russia alone reported 1,252 COVID fatalities, and the numbers are on the rise. We are all cooking in the COVID alphabet soup together. Evidently the “we” that president Biden was talking about, who have “beaten” previous variants and will successfully beat Omicron as well, are not all of us, mankind. Notably even within the US there are significant gaps in rates of vaccination, new cases, and deaths, depending on state, ethnic group, income and other socioeconomic characteristics.
Health experts are less optimistic than the president about our COVID situation. Infectious disease experts predicts that “omicron will likely dominate and overwhelm the whole world in three to six months”. Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel predicted that “Existing COVID-19 vaccines are likely to be less effective against the emerging Omicron variant.” He added that “I think it’s going to be a material drop, I just don’t know how much because we need to wait for the data. But all the scientists I’ve talked to . . . are like, ‘This is not going to be good.’”. Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla said that “people will likely need to have annual COVID vaccinations for many years to come.”
In the meantime the virus will continue to evolve and learn. Will humanity also continue to evolve and learn?
100,000,000,000,000
What is this large number you ask? The answer is, how many times is the corona virus smaller than Earth (for science lovers, the diameter of the virus is estimated to be 120 nanometers, while the diameter of the earth is about 12,000 kilometers). And if you want something in the middle, the corona virus is about 15 million times smaller than president Biden.
Which brings up the question: if this is a fight— who is the opponent? The tiny coronavirus? We may be failing to recognize our “enemy”, his size and power.
In December 2020 in a virtual address entitled “The State of the Planet”, UN secretary general António Guterres said: “Humanity is waging war on nature. This is suicidal. Nature always strikes back — and it is already doing so with growing force and fury.”. He added that “Human activities are at the root of our descent toward chaos.”.
Imagine
I am no longer surprised nor angry when heads of states, international figures or various experts speaking about COVID contradict each other and often themselves a few months earlier. I do have one simple request. Tell the truth.
Can you imagine this? The US president for example goes on stage and he says. “Look, I really want to be honest with you all, my fellow men. We are actually clueless. We don’t understand what is happening, what is this annoying coronavirus that refuses to go away, where do more and more new mutations come from, how long will this last, what should we do?
We also don’t know what to do about global warming and extreme climate changes, wildfires, floods, locust, social disintegration, wars and terrorism, and in general how 8 billion people can live together on this planet. I guess we don’t understand Nature, this system that we are all parts of but can’t really grasp. We seem unable to collaborate and behave kindly to each other and to Nature, so it will behave kindly towards us. Can anyone help?”
There will be a moment of silence. What will happen next? I don’t know. Let’s find out.
Nature does nothing in vain.
— Aristotle
