Source:
South China Morning Post, Hong Kong The coronavirus that causes Covid-19 could kill the powerful immune cells that are supposed to kill the virus instead, scientists have warned.
The surprise discovery, made by a team of researchers from Shanghai and New York, coincided with frontline doctors' observation that Covid-19 could attack the human immune system and cause damages similar to that found in HIV patients.
...
Further investigations to the coronavirus infection on primary T cells would evoke "new ideas about pathogenic mechanisms and therapeutic interventions," the researchers said in a paper published in the peer-reviewed journal Cellular & Molecular Immunology this week.
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A doctor, who works in a public hospital treating Covid-19 patients in Beijing, said the discovery added another piece of evidence to a growing concern in medical circles that the coronavirus could sometimes behave like some of the most notorious viruses that directly attack the human immune system.
"More and more people compare it to HIV," said the doctor who requested not to be named due to the sensitivity of the issue.
Read more:
https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/3079443/coronavirus-could-target-immune-system-targeting-protective
I hope to god these preliminary reports turn out to be unsubstantiated.
But it raises the question, are we being told everything about this disease?
Have governments around the world all agreed to shut down their economies for months because there actually are insidious aspects of covid-19 that are not public knowledge yet?
EDIT: Ok, that last part sounded a bit conspiratorial, as some posters have pointed out. Let me clarify that. I do not mean to imply there is a cover-up, rather, that the ramifications of the latest findings are known better to the experts and government leadership that we in the general public at this time.
The steps taken to date have been extraordinary in scope and breadth, with nations shutting down entire economies and talk now of keeping them shut down into the summer, Trump's posturing to "re-open" the country not with standing.
Personally, I am just starting to wrap my head around how big the pandemic is in both medical and economic terms.
Thanks out to those that have discussed this with me down thread already.