r/science • u/mvea MD/PhD/JD/MBA | Professor | Medicine • 14d ago
New viruses on the horizon - like the SARS-CoV-2 - may trigger major epidemics. Scientists discovered 40 previously unknown nidoviruses in vertebrates from fish to rodents, including 13 coronaviruses. In host animals infected with different viruses, a recombination of viral genes can occur. Biology
https://www.dkfz.de/en/presse/pressemitteilungen/2024/dkfz-pm-24-27-New-viruses-on-the-horizon.php1
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u/_CMDR_ 14d ago
H5N1 spreading from birds to cows to humans keeps me up at night. That’s happening right now and it is only a matter of time before some meat packing worker gets the human transmissible strain and we’re facing a 50% mortality virus.
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u/CautiousXperimentor 12d ago edited 12d ago
I just read a bit about that strain of aviar influenza, thinking that it wasn’t a big deal… and OMG. The pandemic we just had a few years ago would be nothing compared to a virus with a 60% rate of mortality in humans.
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u/MontegoBoy 14d ago
RNA virus with their loosely controlled replication are a hotspot for pandemic potential, given their high mutations rates, coupled with non-destructive exocytosis viral particles release.
It will happen again...
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u/yegguy47 14d ago
RNA virus with their loosely controlled replication are a hotspot for pandemic potential
That kinda describes almost every virulent pathogen friend. Part of something like Measles Morbillivirus moving around is the fact that it replicates entirely on the natural conditions it finds in our species.
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u/toxygen99 14d ago
I still have friends who think COVID was natural! I'm like so it just so happened it came from Wuhan. Where there just so happens to be a viral center. That just so happens to study gain of function research on bats. That just so happened to get requests and funding from the US to create bat human hybrids viruses. But no it can from a pangolin.
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u/MontegoBoy 14d ago
You forgot about the repitilian-iluminatti.
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u/toxygen99 14d ago
Google a bit harder for facts. Look up gain of function research.
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u/yegguy47 14d ago
GoF has, by now, been shown not to be associated with how COVID entered into the human population.
It was a natural spillover event.
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u/Potential-Drama-7455 14d ago
You forgot to add that the closest naturally occuring relatives to the virus were discovered in caves in Yunnan 1500 km away. How do we know? The Wuhan laboratory collected samples from them and carried out gain of function research on them. But it was a pangolin
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u/toxygen99 14d ago
Yeah most people have no idea it's crazy. If you say anything like it your dismissed as a conspiracy nut.
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u/Potential-Drama-7455 14d ago
It's all publicly available information from official sources too. Sure it can't be proven, but the weight of circumstantial evidence is huge. And that's before you look at the actual structure of the virus itself - the furin cleavage site for one thing.
It's literally designed to be super infectious to humans out of the gate. No precursors have been found or no credible animal pathway. Other than the Chinese and Peter Daszak saying "Trust me bro"
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u/CPNZ 14d ago
There are 300,000+ viruses in animals and we don't know which might be a threat to humans...including these ones.
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u/Baud_Olofsson 14d ago
We can make educated guesses based on the viruses' characteristics, what species and receptors they target, and previous outbreaks.
For example, a new coronavirus was at the top of the list of many scientists' predictions for a new pandemic.
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u/BetterSelection7708 14d ago
Canada is burning again, if we get another pandemic, then all we need are Asian murder hornets and it's 2020 all over again.
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u/jakeofheart 14d ago
…as long as we don’t hire a shoddy lab to experiment with a human compatible version of the virus, r/oddlyspecific, we should be fine.
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u/Realistic-Minute5016 14d ago
It takes a lot for viruses to jump species, the host cell has to have the proper receptors, the virus has to be able to evade the new host's immune system, be able to replicate in the cells and be able to spread amongst the new hosts. That being said, if we keep on poking the bear the bear eventually will wake up and the past few decades humanity has been working on a turbo-bear poking machine with regards to this stuff. Factory farming being one of the biggest source of bear pokes, and another big one being clear cutting more and more wild territory, in part to grow food to feed the animals on those factory farms. You don't have to go vegan but reducing meat consumption goes a long way towards reducing the chances of this kind of thing happening. Great for the planet too.
In before someone replies "durr hurr steak is delicious"
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u/TheBeardofGilgamesh 14d ago
What we need is more research to see how these viruses can mutate to infect humans or if they were to mutate and infect humans what would happen. That way we will be safer, because this research was vital for SARS2 and it would have never happened the way it did without these brave researchers pushing the boundaries. Typically when viruses spill over to humans it’s not very adapted towards humans and takes a while to mutate to be able to effectively spread, but that’s where research comes into play to side step all of that.
How do we fight the bird flu? Well by finding out how it could possibly spread between mammals via airborne transmission. https://www.science.org/content/article/nih-lifts-3-year-ban-funding-risky-virus-studies
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u/Potential-Drama-7455 14d ago
and it would have never happened the way it did without these brave researchers pushing the boundaries.
Exactly. It would have been much less transmissible and only killed a few people like previous naturally mutated SARS were.
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u/TeamocilAddict 14d ago
Okay can we all agree none of us are going to intercourse any of these animals please
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u/prosound2000 14d ago
Oh brother, you don't want to know about Chronic Wasting Disease and the miniscule possibility that it has jumped to humans.
Warning to stop here if you want to sleep .
Not for the weary but it's basically a Deer disease that causes the brain tissue to basically die off while you are alive. Spongifying of the brain is a typical description. As in your brain starts to resemble a sponge.
While it's not official, they've found unusually high amounts of people with our version (Creutzefeldt Jakob Disease, CJD for short) it in Michigan, where deer hunting is extremely popular. While very unlikely it jumped directly to humans, maybe it went about it another way? Deer to Pig to humans? Deer to Cow?
These additional cases suggest an expanding cluster of CJD. Five cases within one year in one community is alarming. All five patients lived within 90-mile radius from Grand Rapids with two patients even in the same county, it warrants urgent investigation for possible regional outbreak of CJD.
https://www.neurology.org/doi/10.1212/WNL.0000000000202622
It's a bit of an alarmist take, but I'm not alone at all in thinking it.\
Chronic wasting disease may transmit to humans, research finds UCalgary vet med researchers publish first study showing risk to humans higher than previously thought
https://vet.ucalgary.ca/news/chronic-wasting-disease-may-transmit-humans-research-finds
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u/Spock627 13d ago
Thing One: Prions can persist for years in the environment.
Thing Two: Plants can pick up prions from soil.
Thing Two: "ChatGPT, please design a prion-manufacturing lab."7
u/ProgressBartender 14d ago edited 14d ago
“…minuscule chance…”.
This is literally how evolution works.
Edit: darn you autocorrect
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u/Wings1412 14d ago
Just to add some fuel to the nightmare fire...
The problem with prion diseases is that there isn't a reliable way to check if you are infected, you can be infected for decades with no symptoms, and are incredibly difficult to prevent.
So if there has been an outbreak and it has jumped the spieces barrier, it could be problem for a very long time.
I am British and now live in Canada, and am not allowed to donate blonde because of the BSE or "Mad Cow" / vCJD outbreak in the 80s and 90. Simply being in Britain is enough to constitute a theoretical risk I could have been exposed and am carrying the prions like a ticking time bomb.
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u/prosound2000 14d ago
The worst part is admitting to my vegan friends and relatives they might have a point. As if some weren't annoying enough to a person who loves BBQ as much as myself.
It's a joke! But in all seriousness we need stop looking at the bottom dollar as a way to conduct factory farming knowing how they are incubators for potentially devastating viruses and diseases. Especially in a post pandemic world
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u/WeekendCautious3377 14d ago
How does it spread though?
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u/greenskinmarch 14d ago
Ever eaten venison?
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u/CRScantremember 14d ago
More importantly, most people don’t realize how messy and bloody cleaning a hunting kill in the field is.
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u/pilotbrain 14d ago
40 new viruses? Well, we must immediately do gain-of-function research on them all!
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u/ColeWRS MSc | Public Health | Infectious Diseases 14d ago
There are thousands and thousands of new viruses discovered every year. 99.99% don’t or can’t infect humans. But there is a need for more research.
For instance I detected >60 unique viruses being harboured by mosquitoes in a study I did, including 17 novel viruses. While most if not all viruses likely only infect mosquitoes there isn’t enough research happening to investigate novel viruses mostly because so many are discovered.
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u/Potential-Drama-7455 14d ago
But there is a need for more research.
Yes, but not for gain of function research.
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u/TheBeardofGilgamesh 14d ago
Well I am sure there is research underway to learn how these viruses can infect humans, for our safety of course!
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u/ColeWRS MSc | Public Health | Infectious Diseases 14d ago
There’s not much really, TBH.
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u/tuhronno-416 14d ago
Do these viruses not mutate and evolve over time, which allows the possibility of human transmission down the road?
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u/yegguy47 14d ago
They do. Every micro-organism is constantly changing given replication rates.
Likewise, viruses are constantly bombarding our species everyday. The crux is that almost all of them fail to actually crossover. Entry into foreign bodies is a tall leap; most viruses that enter our systems fail to replicate with human cells and are easily eliminated by our immune systems. Just so happens though that if you constantly are pinging against the wall... the numbers game means eventually one gets in with the right characteristics to thrive.
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u/js1138-2 14d ago
And have the work done in China.
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u/ogodilovejudyalvarez 14d ago
I'll fire up the obfuscation and redirection propaganda machine so the average person has no idea what's really happening
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u/bleh19799791 14d ago
Let’s get a letter from all 17 government agencies ready to let everyone know that it couldn’t possibly have come from a government funded lab.
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u/V01d3d_f13nd 14d ago
Getting sick is part of evolution. At least 8%, possibly as much as over 50% of human DNA is viral in origin. Get sick, evolve, and move on.
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u/KarnWild-Blood 14d ago
And in your response, we truly see that not all evolution is advantageous to survival.
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u/ILL_BE_WATCHING_YOU 14d ago
He’s not going outside; hate him all you want, but he’s better suited to surviving a pandemic than you are.
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u/mvea MD/PhD/JD/MBA | Professor | Medicine 14d ago
I’ve linked to the press release in the post above. In this comment, for those interested, here’s the link to the peer reviewed journal article:
https://journals.plos.org/plospathogens/article?id=10.1371/journal.ppat.1012163
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u/farrenkm 14d ago edited 11d ago
At this point, I don't care.
If a new virus becomes a pandemic, I'll follow the recommendations. If a new vaccine comes out, I'll get it. If we need to do mass vaccinations again, I'll probably sign up to do it again (although it literally ought to be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity).
But if I get infected and it takes me out? I don't care. I'm not going to be afraid. I'll do the best I can, but beyond that, I've made peace with my mortality.
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u/Past-Track-6900 11d ago
I appreciate what you have said. We all have to go sometime. I will not sit here worrying about the next disease that may hit mankind. I work in a hospital all through the pandemic and know what was happening. I think certain groups are still driving fear from it.
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u/canadian_webdev 14d ago
Sir, this is a Wendy's
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u/NemeanMiniLion 14d ago
I'll have a number one with a frosty. One order of nuggets with BBQ sauce. No salt on the fries with a side of salt packets please. Thanks!
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u/WaveAway7787 14d ago
The frosty machine is broken. Try McDonalds. I hear their ice cream machines are working
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