Coronavirus

Ivermectin has been promoted by certain factions as a miracle drug (yes, those exact words were used) against COVID-19.

But like Hydroxychloroquine, which was equally promoted before Ivermectin, neither have any effect on COVID-19.

So what is the evidence for or against Ivermectin? This article lists whatever evidence at the time of this writing.

The province of Ontario, Canada, is heading for a third wave of the Coronavirus pandemic of 2020/2021, and the reason is a yet to be identified variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

As we all know by now, the Coronavirus that caused the 2020/2021 pandemic has not stayed with the same genetic sequence of the original wild type identified in Wuhan China. This is completely expected, because all living beings mutate, and viruses specially so.

This article provides an overview of virus mutations, the current variants from the UK and South Africa, how the immune system works on pathogen proteins, and whether all this has implications on the efficacy of the current vaccines.

Mutations

Mutations are a fact of life for all living beings. Viruses, due to many reasons (generation rate in hours, infecting millions of cells, ...), have a very fast mutation rate. That is just what goes on.

Users on social media have been sharing news that China is using Anal Swabs for detecting Coronavirus infections. While this is true, it seems that this will not be applied to everyone being tested.

These anal swabs are soaked in saline, and inserted into the anus and rotated.

If you see this France24 article, you will notice this part:

SARS-CoV-2, the Coronavirus that causes COVID-19 and is responsible for the 2020 pandemic, is known to enter cells via the ACE2 receptor (see this video on the Renin-Angiotensin system).

In addition to ACE2, there are other receptors that either facilitate entry into cells (making the virus more infectious) or increase its pathogenicity (causing more severe symptoms).