Rational Science
COVID-19 and the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus
The mass media, the social media, and the “blogosphere” are filled with misinformation, disinformation, and occasionally meaningful but abridged reports concerning the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus and the COVID-19 disease.
Because government pressure has forced the major scientific publishing companies to allow online pre-publication of both new submissions and peer-reviewed articles, whatever is happening in laboratories throughout the world concerning the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus and the COVID-19 disease appears quickly on the web. Since many search engines permit relatively complex Boolean searches, it is possible to assemble large numbers of research papers on a particular point.
The easy availability of data from laboratories throughout the world allows scientists to jump in and comment or build upon the work of other scientists. This has led to rapid and dramatic advances in understanding how viruses, antibodies, the human immune system, and disease transmission occur. The advances in virology, molecular biology, and biochemistry have proceeded at a pace never before seen outside of wartime efforts such as the Manhattan Project which led to the first atomic bombs.
Unfortunately, the general public does not have enough knowledge about human biology, much less an in-depth knowledge of biochemistry, molecular biology, and virology sufficient to evaluate government pronouncements concerning the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus and the COVID-19 pandemic.
It appears that many elected officials including the 45th President of the United States and a number of state governors have forgotten, or never knew, about the process of exponential growth, much less the basic principles of epidemiology and the mathematics of probability and statistics upon which that science is based.
During my 60 years trying controverted cases in courtrooms throughout the country, I have had the opportunity to help scientists present the results of complex research to judges and juries who had little or no scientific background. That experience leads me to undertake a primitive effort to consolidate the substantial credible scientific evidence concerning the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus and the COVID-19 disease which is already published and available on the web.
I have chosen the best and most illustrative graphics I could find and I have tried to credit their source whenever possible together with references to original papaers so that some of the simplifications I have made can be checked by anyone interested.
The postings are divided into the basic biology and the virology of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus and treatment of the COVID-19 disease
COVID-19 and the SARAS-CoV2- coronavirus: a primer
Neurological impact of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus and the COVID-19 disease
as well as some opinion
Personal liberty and individual freedom during a pandemic
The takeaway is that there is no safe and effective treatment for the COVID-19 disease at this time and that each mutation of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus is more infectious and more lethal than the earlier form of the virus.
It appears that the pandemic will not end in a short time and that this particular SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus may not be stopped by any vaccine much the way the HIV virus has avoided any kind of successful vaccination.
It also appears that we are long way from any successful treatment protocol for the COVID-19 disease once it has taken hold in an individual and settled in their individual physiological systems.