Mother Was Wrong On This One

Not your mother, Mother Nature

True, these beautiful up-close viral images attract my attention and speak to the exquisite design of Mother Nature.

But how she allowed this tiny piece of genetic material to become so destructive is hard to understand. Patients have heard me lament about viruses for years: they are wimpy little pieces of RNA and DNA, and yet they’re capable of taking over our sophisticated, much larger machinery.

The COVID-19 virus is a mere 30,000 genetic units or base pairs. The human genome has 3 billion, which means that COVID-19 is 100,000 times smaller. In perspective, if the viral genome is the width of a nickel, your DNA would be as long as nearly 2000 football fields.

So who’s in charge here? We are. Humans. Our science will prevail:  vaccines are on the way; some medicines may already be helpful in stopping COVID-19 from attaching to our cells and directing our DNA.  There may also be treatment to slow or prevent the fibrosing lung disease that is responsible for the unimaginable mortality rates.

And who can control its spread? We can. Humans. We can behave as if each one of us already has the virus and self-isolate. Some of us may not have symptoms, and the infectious period can last up to 3 weeks. Only our vigilance can control the spread, buy time for science to succeed, allow our health care systems to refortify.

Maybe Mother (Nature) was just trying to remind us of our strengths. Intelligence and perseverance. COVID-19 is just following what its coding tells it to do. We are smarter, and have choice and will.

#NoMatchforHumans

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