Is it possible that most people have a natural immunity to the virus that prevents them from getting the disease? Those few that are not immune then would be the ones that have a low survival rate. If this were the case, the virus might be capable of spreading by way of the air. The Spanish lady apparently received a dose of the disease even when covered well with the best protection and little apparent body fluid contact if any at all. Has it been established that no one has natural immunity or is that just an assumption?
Dave -----Original Message----- From: John Berry <berry.joh...@gmail.com> To: vortex-l <vortex-l@eskimo.com> Sent: Wed, Oct 8, 2014 10:26 pm Subject: Re: [Vo]:Off Topic: "Flu" Season There is lots of evidence that this can get past biohazard containment procedures: http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/to-your-health/wp/2014/10/07/after-nurse-contracts-ebola-spanish-health-workers-raise-concerns-about-protective-equipment/ If this strain is so infectious that this is so, then would it not be spread by a wet cough or sneeze? Or when someone had just very mild or beginning symptoms? It might be very much not a case of being realistically able to avoid contact if this gets out of hand (and with current attitudes that seems kinda likely) but fighting it off once you have it. John On Mon, Oct 6, 2014 at 5:26 PM, James Bowery <jabow...@gmail.com> wrote: On Wed, Oct 1, 2014 at 11:00 AM, James Bowery <jabow...@gmail.com> wrote: There are two rays of hope here: 1) That the high rate of infection in Africa will allow evolution toward greater ambulatory transmission of the virus. This sounds nonsensical at first but you need to understand evolutionary medicine and optimal virulence. There is a good chance the virus will have, among its _many_ mutations, a less virulent strain that allows its victim to remain ambulatory longer and thereby spread it faster than a strain that incapacitates its victim. This creates an evolutionary direction toward a longer period of contagion but lowers its virulence. There is, of course, a huge human cost to this evolution. 2) The Japanese have had, since September 2, a 30 minute Ebola test that they have been ready to mass produce -- unfortunately while the US twiddles its thumbs waiting for an event such as the one that just occurred in Dallas to wake up the slumbering fools. More pessimistically: The Ebola Epidemiology They Won't Talk About
