Originally posted by dlh Why do you suppose people live to be different ages before they kick off? Or why people might have sense enough to choose variations in their environments? As to your latter point, I do know a little about the genetic characteristics of the immune system, since I happen to have the genetic characteristic that causes autoimmune disorders. You can read up on all this stuff on a website run by NIH called "pubmed.com" - journal articles from leading medical publications.
Why do you suppose the best predictor of life expectancy is socioeconomic level? Or why it has been proven time and again that life choices have little to no base in genetics and all to do with upbringing and education?
I have more than one degree that deals in biotechnology with splashes in genetic engineering. There are several medical doctors in the family - my own mother teaches healthcare statistics¹ among other subjects. My girlfriend's entire PhD thesis deals with DNA chemistry. I am
literally paid to read articles from leading scientific journals. I'm not the only one who supremely eye-rolled while reading your "survival of the fittest" post.
Also, the 1918 flu appeared at a time where a lot of people were malnourished, in the middle of a war and a bunch of other factors.
Really not comparable - the 2009 flu from exactly the same strain still caused a lot of problems, when clearly we all should have been immune
¹:genetics are largely irrelevant for most infectious diseases, they tend to play a role in chronic conditions and degenerative diseases, and even then it's more of a "heightened chances" than a certainty.
---------- Post added 04-03-20 at 05:27 PM ----------
Originally posted by aslyfox A Spanish research group in collaboration with the Karolinska institute (in Sweden) also reported that they used a synthetic ACE-2 receptor to "trick" the virus into binding itself. They tested it in lab-grown "minikidneys" from human stem cells, they will move it into clinical trials ASAP. It's late and I only have a source in Spanish on hand, but the paper is in pre-proof at Cell (one of the world's leading publications, it's top-tier for these things).
There is certainly hope for a cure, although I (or let's be honest, no one) wouldn't be able to say which particular mechanism the "best" one will follow.