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Q; What are the differences between DNA viruses and RNA viruses?

Krishna: The following differences have been observed between DNA and RNA viruses:

1. DNA viruses are mostly double-stranded while RNA viruses are single-stranded.

2. RNA mutation rate is higher than DNA mutation rate.

3. DNA replication takes place in the nucleus while RNA replication takes place in the cytoplasm.

4. DNA viruses are stable while RNA viruses are unstable.

5. In DNA viruses, viral genetic code is injected in the host DNA for duplication and decoding. RNA viruses skip DNA for duplication and decoding.

Q: Which viruses (DNA or RNA) are difficult to have vaccines against and why?

Krishna:  RNA viruses generally have very high mutation rates compared to DNA viruses, because viral RNA polymerases lack the proofreading ability of DNA polymerases. This is one reason why it is difficult to make effective vaccines to prevent diseases caused by RNA viruses. Retroviruses also have a high mutation rate even though their DNA intermediate integrates into the host genome (and is thus subject to host DNA proofreading once integrated), because errors during reverse transcription are embedded into both strands of DNA before integration. Some genes of RNA virus are important to the viral replication cycles and mutations are not tolerated. For example, the region of the hepatitis C virus genome that encodes the core protein is highly conserved, because it contains an RNA structure involved in an internal ribosome entry site.

Q: Can you give examples of some DNA viruses and RNA viruses?

Krishna:

DNA viruses can be divided into two classes: single strand DNA viruses and double strand DNA viruses. Parvoviruses are the only virus family with a single-strand DNA genome among the animal viruses. In contrast, double-strand DNA viruses can be subdivided into three groups: (1) those with a small size DNA genome (<10 kb), such as polyomaviruses and papillomaviruses; (2) those with a medium size DNA genome (ca., 35 kb), such as adenoviruses; and (3) those with a large size DNA genome (ca., 150–250 kb), such as herpesviruses.
DNA viruses :  herpes virus (HSV, VZV, CMV, EBV),  hepadnavirus (hepatitis B),  adenovirus,  papovavirus (HPV),  poxvirus (molluscum, smallpox, Orf, milker’s nodule),  parvovirus B19 (only single-stranded DNA virus).
RNA viruses: Paramyxovirus (measles, mumps), picornavirus (Coxsackie), rhabdovirus (rabies), retrovirus (HIV), togavirus (rubella), Corona virus (COVID-19).

Q: How has coronavirus changed the views of science?

Krishna: Why would it? Science has fixed rules. They don’t get changed because of some virus.

However, if new data suggests a course correction in our understanding, it would definitely be accepted.

Q: What is Babinski reflex ? What does it tell about the health condition of a person?

Krishna: Babinski reflex is one of the normal reflexes in infants. Reflexes are responses that occur when the body receives a certain stimulus. The Babinski reflex occurs after the sole of the foot has been firmly stroked. The big toe then moves upward or toward the top surface of the foot. The other toes fan out. This reflex is normal in children up to 2 years old. It disappears as the child gets older. It may disappear as early as 12 months.

When the Babinski reflex is present in a child older than 2 years or in an adult, it is often a sign of a central nervous system disorder. The central nervous system includes the brain and spinal cord. Disorders may include: Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (Lou Gehrig disease), brain tumor or injury, meningitis (infection of the membranes covering the brain and spinal cord), multiple sclerosis, spinal cord injury, defect, or tumor, stroke.

Q: Even after scientists like Niels Bohr, who quoted Vedas to be his inspiration, why are Indians so ready to disassociate it with science?

Modern science is another ball game altogether. If anything doesn’t stick to modern scientific method, it is not considered as science now. What ‘s said in vedas is knowledge reflecting the ancient times alright, but it is not science strictly speaking according to modern science.

If you try to associate ancient thinking of an era when science as a subject hadn’t been born, to modern science, that becomes pseudo-science, not genuine science.

Treat vedas as ancient knowledge and thinking reflecting their time.

Treat science as modern knowledge based on data and evidence.

That is exactly what they are!

Just because an earlier century scientist ‘got his inspiration from vedas’, doesn’t make them genuine science. Get that right.

Q: Is the Indian Vedas knowledge more than today's science?

Krishna: NO!

Vedas were based on ‘ancient knowledge’ written well before the modern scientific era. Therefore, modern scientific methods were not followed to state things in them.

Vedas were never meant to be science textbooks. They contain no quantum physics, no relativity, no Higgs boson or anything else they ‘re claimed to have. People who claim that the Vedas contain all the modern scientific information use pseudoscience and imaginative stretching and explain things vaguely to make them sound like they are talking about real science.

Genuine scientists can identify these fake explanations but common people cannot and therefore think all that is true!

But they do contain some earlier scientific knowledge of mathematics, astronomy, medicine and philosophy. Most of these things are in a primitive state and cannot match modern science in any way.

Don’t fall for pseudoscience and fake claims.

Q: How stable is new corona virus on surfaces?  

Krishna: The virus that causes coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is stable for several hours to days in aerosols and on surfaces, according to a new study from National Institutes of Health, CDC, UCLA and Princeton University scientists The New England Journal of Medicine. The scientists found that severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) was detectable in aerosols for up to three hours, up to four hours on copper, up to 24 hours on cardboard and up to two to three days on plastic and stainless steel.

Q: If 40-70% of the population will be infected with COVID-19 eventually, is there any point in trying to evade it? Wouldn’t I be better off to get it early and build immunity?

Because Those Who Recover From Coronavirus Can Be Left With Reduced Lung Fu...

Some patients might have around a drop of 20 to 30% in lung function, after they recover. They gasp if they walk a bit more quickly. Current coronavirus patients' CT scans show "ground glass," a phenomenon in which fluid builds up in lungs and presents itself as white patches, as Business Insider's Aria Bendix has reported. The scans below, taken from one coronavirus patient at different points in time, show that the person's "ground glass" became more pronounced as their illness progressed.

If too much of the lung is damaged and not enough oxygen is supplied to the rest of the body, respiratory failure could lead to organ failure and death.

What does the coronavirus do to your body? Everything to know about...

Even if I recover, my body becomes weak in some respect making it prone to other illnesses.

Moreover, we don’t yet know how long our immunity stays when once infected.

Then there’s the February 14 article from Caixin, a Beijing, China-based media group, that was entitled “14% of Recovered Covid-19 Patients in Guangdong Tested Positive Again.” It warned of such reinfection possibilities.

They survived the coronavirus. Then they tested positive again. Why?

Do You Get Immunity After Recovering From A Case Of Coronavirus?

It’s still unknown whether those people were truly reinfected or still just had low levels of the virus in their systems after they felt better.

For coronaviruses that cause the common cold (in the same family of viruses as the one that causes Covid-19), according to virologists, reinfection is possible, but on a timescale of years, not weeks or months. Again, we’re going to have to wait and see if this also applies to Covid-19. For now, except for a few reports, we have not seen any data that is convincing that reinfection really occurs.

The amount of immunity that you build up after being exposed to any virus depends on not only virus itself but your immune system and its response as well.

Coronavirus infections and immune responses

The immune response to one virus won’t necessarily be the same as to another virus, even if both viruses were different types of coronaviruses.

Even if people do become immune, “one thing we don’t know about that still is how long that immunity would last,” according to experts. And that’s not something we can determine until we wait months or years in the future, and test again and see if those antibodies are still there.

And what if I get infected with a mutated strain of the virus again? The first immunity built up in my body won’t be able to stop this mutated strain. So I can get a second infection which might prove fatal because of the ‘weakness’ caused by the first infection.

And there is a problem of co-infections. Human coronavirus alone or in co-infection with rhinovirus C is a r...

The role of infections and coinfections with newly identified and e...

If many people think like you do, it will overwhelm the health sector, increasing the mortality rate and we will lose the fight of ‘flattening the curve’.

You might increase the chances of more infections by getting it yourself.

So I try my best not to get the infection. And as a microbiologist I think vaccination gives me a better protection without suffering the consequences of actually getting the infection than getting it from it.

No, I am going to fight it. Not going to meekly surrender. I am going to take precautions till a vaccine is developed. Then take the vaccine and stay healthy.

And I advice everybody to follow me. Don’t give up without even starting the fight.

Why do you think the scientists are working day and night to develop a vaccine? Why do you think the health care providers putting their lives at risk?

Please don’t let their efforts go waste. Please co-operate and try not to contribute to more problems.

Thank you.

Views: 75

Replies to This Discussion

74

Q: If 40-70% of the population will be infected with COVID-19 eventually, is there any point in trying to evade it? Wouldn’t I be better off to get it early and build immunity?

Because Those Who Recover From Coronavirus Can Be Left With Reduced Lung Fu...

Some patients might have around a drop of 20 to 30% in lung function, after they recover. They gasp if they walk a bit more quickly. Current coronavirus patients' CT scans show "ground glass," a phenomenon in which fluid builds up in lungs and presents itself as white patches, as Business Insider's Aria Bendix has reported. The scans below, taken from one coronavirus patient at different points in time, show that the person's "ground glass" became more pronounced as their illness progressed.

If too much of the lung is damaged and not enough oxygen is supplied to the rest of the body, respiratory failure could lead to organ failure and death.

What does the coronavirus do to your body? Everything to know about...

Even if I recover, my body becomes weak in some respect making it prone to other illnesses.

Moreover, we don’t yet know how long our immunity stays when once infected.

Then there’s the February 14 article from Caixin, a Beijing, China-based media group, that was entitled “14% of Recovered Covid-19 Patients in Guangdong Tested Positive Again.” It warned of such reinfection possibilities.

They survived the coronavirus. Then they tested positive again. Why?

Do You Get Immunity After Recovering From A Case Of Coronavirus?

It’s still unknown whether those people were truly reinfected or still just had low levels of the virus in their systems after they felt better.

For coronaviruses that cause the common cold (in the same family of viruses as the one that causes Covid-19), according to virologists, reinfection is possible, but on a timescale of years, not weeks or months. Again, we’re going to have to wait and see if this also applies to Covid-19. For now, except for a few reports, we have not seen any data that is convincing that reinfection really occurs.

The amount of immunity that you build up after being exposed to any virus depends on not only virus itself but your immune system and its response as well.

Coronavirus infections and immune responses

The immune response to one virus won’t necessarily be the same as to another virus, even if both viruses were different types of coronaviruses.

Even if people do become immune, “one thing we don’t know about that still is how long that immunity would last,” according to experts. And that’s not something we can determine until we wait months or years in the future, and test again and see if those antibodies are still there.

And what if I get infected with a mutated strain of the virus again? The first immunity built up in my body won’t be able to stop this mutated strain. So I can get a second infection which might prove fatal because of the ‘weakness’ caused by the first infection.

And there is a problem of co-infections. Human coronavirus alone or in co-infection with rhinovirus C is a r...

The role of infections and coinfections with newly identified and e...

If many people think like you do, it will overwhelm the health sector, increasing the mortality rate and we will lose the fight of ‘flattening the curve’.

You might increase the chances of more infections by getting it yourself.

So I try my best not to get the infection. And as a microbiologist I think vaccination gives me a better protection without suffering the consequences of actually getting the infection than getting it from it.

No, I am going to fight it. Not going to meekly surrender. I am going to take precautions till a vaccine is developed. Then take the vaccine and stay healthy.

And I advice everybody to follow me. Don’t give up without even starting the fight.

Why do you think the scientists are working day and night to develop a vaccine? Why do you think the health care providers putting their lives at risk?

Please don’t let their efforts go waste. Please co-operate and try not to contribute to more problems.

--

Krishna: NO!

Vedas were based on ‘ancient knowledge’ written well before the modern scientific era. Therefore, modern scientific methods were not followed to state things in them.

Vedas were never meant to be science textbooks. They contain no quantum physics, no relativity, no Higgs boson or anything else they ‘re claimed to have. People who claim that the Vedas contain all the modern scientific information use pseudoscience and imaginative stretching and explain things vaguely to make them sound like they are talking about real science.

Genuine scientists can identify these fake explanations but common people cannot and therefore think all that is true!

But they do contain some earlier scientific knowledge of mathematics, astronomy, medicine and philosophy. Most of these things are in a primitive state and cannot match modern science in any way.

Modern science is another ball game altogether. If anything doesn’t stick to modern scientific method, it is not considered as science now. What ‘s said in vedas is knowledge reflecting the ancient times alright, but it is not science strictly speaking according to modern science.

If you try to associate ancient thinking of an era when science as a subject hadn’t been born, to modern science, that becomes pseudo-science, not genuine science.

Treat vedas as ancient knowledge and thinking reflecting their time.

Treat science as modern knowledge based on data and evidence.

That is exactly what they are!

Don’t fall for pseudoscience and fake claims.

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