- As the coronavirus from Wuhan, China,
continues to spread across the globe,
many more are becoming infected and some even dying.
As of making this video, 132 people have died worldwide,
with over 6,000 infected in China alone.
But what actually happens to your body
if you contract the coronavirus?
Now, before we get into it,
we wanna make clear that this video
is in no way intended to spread fear
or over-sensationalize the severity of the coronavirus.
We won't be commenting on its global threat level
because that information is constantly changing
while experts monitor its spread.
- But what we will be looking at
is how the coronavirus actually infects the body,
what it does inside of you,
and then how it causes symptoms, spreads,
how your body actually then fights it off
or it causes death in some.
Coronaviridae are actually an entire family of viruses
that cause disease in mammals and birds.
SARS, for example, was also a coronavirus.
Now, viruses are interesting
in that they are sometimes considered
both living and non-living things.
They aren't made of cells,
but they do have the ability to replicate,
just in a different way than other organisms.
Oh, and they're actually much, much smaller than cells.
- Now, to contract the coronavirus,
you first have to come in contact with it,
either through an infected person's respiratory secretions,
so a cough or a sneeze, through physical contact with them,
or by physically touching a surface that the virus is on
and then touching somewhere like your nose
or your mouth before washing your hands.
Once the virus is able to enter your body,
its work can begin.
One thing that all viruses have in common
is that they carry some kind of genetic material,
either DNA or RNA.
In the case of coronavirus, it carries RNA,
which has all the information the virus needs to replicate.
The genetic information in a virus
is typically surrounded by a protective capsid.
- You may picture this when you think of a virus,
and it is a virus,
but this is a virus that attacks bacteria,
also known as a bacteriophage.
In the case of the coronavirus,
the RNA is encased in a helical capsid,
and then that helical capsid
is actually encased in an envelope.
It looks more like this, kind of like the emoji of a virus.
And these projections coming outta the surface,
or the club-like structures,
are very important for what happens next.
Once the virus comes in contact with your cells,
it binds to receptors on that cell.
You can think of the outer lay of the virus like a key.
And if the virus has found the right cells
in the right species,
its keys are able to open the lock on these cells.
As a result, the virus is able to enter,
where it now has access to all the cell's machinery.
- Now, normally, this machinery
is reserved for your own DNA,
which uses something called the ribosomes
to make proteins that have all sorts of functions
and travel all over your body.
But the coronavirus ends up hijacking the system.
It uses its own RNA to go to those ribosomes
and starts making proteins that it wants.
So, basically, your cell starts producing viruses
by making the genetic material,
by making the capsid and envelope,
and ultimately your cell becomes a virus-making machine.
And this is why viruses are often considered non-living
because they don't actually have
the machinery to do this work.
They actually need your body's cells to do it.
So, the coronavirus has its RNA instructions
read over and over and over
and makes protein after protein after protein
and ultimately can make millions of viruses.
These viruses eventually fill the cell
and make their way back to the cell membrane,
where they break out,
often destroying the cell in the process.
Once out, it's onto the next cell
to repeat this cycle all over again.
- Now, as your cells begin to get damaged and die,
your body will sense this
and start to trigger an immune response,
and both of these things are what will create the symptoms
that you begin to feel.
In the case of the coronavirus,
these symptoms include headaches, runny nose,
coughing, sore throat, and fever,
which is part of the reason why it's been so hard
to track and understand because those are common symptoms.
We feel those all the time, especially during flu season
or just from getting the common cold.
Medical professionals would need to do laboratory tests
on respiratory specimens
as well as blood work and blood tests
to understand if your symptoms
are coming from the Wuhan coronavirus.
- In a healthy individual,
the immune system will eventually realize
that there's a foreign agent inside your body
and mount an attack.
The immune system is incredibly complex
with a plethora of different mechanisms
to take down your invaders.
Your temperature increases,
which helps your immune system function better
and actually makes it a more hostile environment
for the virus.
You might create more snot and phlegm,
which make it harder for the virus to attach to your cells
and also help to get rid of dead viruses and immune cells.
You may feel weak and tired
as your body starts to prioritize fighting off this virus
instead of doing your regular day-to-day activities.
And your bones may actually feel sore and ache,
and that's because they're actually making
more white blood cells.
For its mainline defense, when the coronavirus is detected,
the body triggers signals to start producing antibodies.
These antibodies are created by your own DNA.
There are essentially sections of code in each cell's DNA
that contain the instructions
of how to build different defense systems.
Enzymes in the nucleus find the right section of DNA,
make a copy called messenger RNA,
which gets sent to the ribosome in your cells,
which will read these instructions
and start making the relevant proteins.
With up to 10 million ribosomes in each cell,
they become an antibody-making factory,
which are sent outside of the cell to fight the virus.
- The trickiest part for your body
is that the immune response
doesn't catch the virus right away,
so, essentially, the virus starts with an upper hand.
This is why it can take so long
for your body to fight off a virus.
But for coronavirus, those with healthy immune systems
should be able to fight off
and rid the body of the virus within weeks.
The problem is primarily for those
who have compromised immune systems,
which is often people who are elderly
or people who are very young.
This particular coronavirus has mostly affected the elderly,
and that's because as we age,
our immune systems become less effective
and they actually slow down.
As the virus continues to proliferate
and cells continue to die,
in a desperate attempt to save your body,
your immune system can go into overdrive.
In severe cases, white blood cells are responsible
for activating a variety of chemicals,
which can cause the leaking of fluid into your lungs.
And this combination of cellular destruction from the virus
and fluid-filled lungs interrupts
the transportation of oxygen into the bloodstream,
which can lead to suffocation and organ failure.
But the virus isn't always the cause of death.
Often, with a weakened and distracted immune systems,
other organisms like bacteria
are able to take advantage of the body,
causing further complications.
As organs begin to shut down, the whole body can as well.
- To reiterate, it's the immunocompromised
that are most at risk.
And even with that, it's worth saying
that the numbers are relatively low.
If you think about it, 40,000 people died of the flu
in the US alone last year
and over a million people died of heart disease.
On top of that, the death rate right now
is being estimated between 2% and 3%,
which is continually evolving.
But a disease like SARS was a death rate of 10%
and Ebola in some regions has been up to 50%.
All this to say don't allow the news to make you panic.
- We live in Toronto,
where the SARS virus got world-scale attention.
That's because the only people who died outside of Asia
from that virus were in Canada,
and most of them were in Toronto.
With only 44 people dying in total in Canada,
it had a huge impact on our city.
We lost a lot of tourism, we lost millions of dollars.
But most importantly, we saw a lot of stigma
and racism towards Chinese people.
It's important that we do not repeat those racist notions
that happened here in Toronto
and we all need to be aware of this
when we talk about the current coronavirus.
On our social media channels,
we have seen lots of people saying things like,
"This always happens in China,"
and relating it a lot to the types of foods
that Chinese people eat.
But it's important to remember
that Western food practices are what created mad cow disease
and also Western meat consumption
has created a big issue with antibiotic resistance.
We need to listen to and trust public health professionals
and we need to not overreact
and we need to not use this as an excuse to be racist.
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