Really interesting COVID-19 article on the mystery of children's immune response

[coti]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2020/03/10/coronavirus-is-mysteriously-sparing-kids-killing-elderly-understanding-why-may-help-defeat-virus/?utm_campaign=wp_post_most&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&wpisrc=nl_most#comments-wrapper

One of the few mercies of the spreading coronavirus is that it leaves young children virtually untouched — a mystery virologists say may hold vital clues as to how the virus works.

In China, only 2.4 percent of reported cases were children and only 0.2 percent of reported cases were children who got critically ill, according to the World Health Organization. China has reported no case of a young child dying of the disease covid-19.

Menachery found the older mice’s fatalities were strongly related to not just weakness in their immune systems but also a “disregulation” that caused their immune systems to overreact to the SARS coronavirus. That’s similar to how humans die of infections from the new coronavirus, called SARS-CoV-2.

“It’s the aggressive response from their immune system that is damaging them, even more than the infection itself,” Menachery said. “It’s like police responding to a misdemeanor with a SWAT team crashing through the door.”

If older people's immune systems are over-responding to this virus and destroying themselves, there is a macro-analogy to be made. How far are we willing to go, as a society, in responding to this virus, and for how long? How much are we willing to stunt our children's growth by shutting down schools? How many paychecks should people be willing to sacrifice if it potentially means not eating or losing their homes? How long should people be willing to go without contact with the world outside of their homes?

[AllyCat]

1. Interesting. Cannot view the article,

but wondering why healthier people with functioning immune systems are dying less than the elderly? But I suppose there are MANY factors involved in that.

[Backseat Driver]

2. Wisdom:

"For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known."

Love others' lives and one's own: "And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity."


Life is a desert; as we cross it, sometimes we won't find water, the essential of what we NEED; we'll cry out for it. Sometimes no one will hear; sometimes no one will offer; sometimes others don't know enough about what is needed; sometimes we perish. I can't profess to know IF that was part of a Higher Power's (aka God's) plan, but I think it's wise to keep learning and loving, not in any group or category, just personally. No one can say with certainty that they did not hear the cry of poverty, illness, or what ALL MAY BE necessary to solve every dilemma of WANT across the planet. I'm not looking for the end of days for I can't profess to know when it will happen for me or anyone else. In the meantime, forgive, be grateful, be kind...at least try! That is not always practical or within the personal human experience, which is where the rule of laws may fail the personal experience, but that is my wisdom for the day.

[ismnotwasm]

3. Except when they don't wash their hands

And bring it home to Nana.

On edit; I respect the over abundance of caution but I’m a healthcare worker and I’m starting to call the Corona virus the “C” word. Because there’s a lot of probably unnecessarily frightened people

[msongs]

4. one suspects a short term school shutdown is not going to stunt children's growth nt