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To: exDemMom

Despite your claim, even humans “cured” pass the virus to sex partners for months.

Despite your claim, viruses survive (in clays for example)
for a long time, and bacteria have been found on the ISS.

Despite your claim, filoviruses can be transmitted in droplets

Despite your claim, virus reservoirs are serious,
and at this moment there are none with these filoviruses
in N. America.

Despite your claim, you do not know how this virus
can mutate, or what promotes that process,
or even if this involves error prone processes
leading to aerosolization
or unexpected means of transmission
or to unexpected vectors.

If you really feel there is nothing to this, consider
joining a doc or nurse in W. Africa with the US military.


66 posted on 10/30/2014 5:50:39 PM PDT by Diogenesis (The EXEMPT Congress is complicit in the absence of impeachment)
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To: Diogenesis
All of my "claims" are based completely in the volume of scientific literature documenting Ebola research. If I am making "claims" (implying that there is no factual basis for what I have said), then the scientists who do the original research on the virus are claiming a lot of things about it. Personally, I don't think they're lying about the experimental results; scientists rarely falsify results.

Despite your claim, even humans “cured” pass the virus to sex partners for months.

I've pointed out many times that viable virus has been isolated from semen several weeks after the patient recovered. Clearly, this is a potential source of new infections.

Despite your claim, viruses survive (in clays for example) for a long time, and bacteria have been found on the ISS.

Bacteria and viruses are drastically different. Bacteria are alive, viruses are not. And what kind of viruses are those that survive in clays for a long time? Are they DNA or RNA viruses? RNA is notoriously fragile; DNA is sturdy and can even be mailed in envelopes without significant loss of quality.

Despite your claim, filoviruses can be transmitted in droplets

I have pointed out that Ebola may be transmitted in droplets, which is a form of direct transmission. It is NOT transmitted in aerosols. Droplets, yes. Aerosols, no.

Despite your claim, virus reservoirs are serious, and at this moment there are none with these filoviruses in N. America.

A virus reservoir is only a problem if the habitats of the reservoir and humans overlap. I just read today that over 300,000 animal viruses are estimated to exist. Many of those viruses, no doubt, would cause deadly disease in humans--at least one new disease "emerges" every year.

Despite your claim, you do not know how this virus can mutate, or what promotes that process, or even if this involves error prone processes leading to aerosolization or unexpected means of transmission or to unexpected vectors.

The mechanisms of mutation are well-known and ubiquitous. I actually *do* know how Ebola can mutate, because I've studied those mechanisms. On average, every time a new virus is made, it has one mutation in its genetic material. The Ebola virus has about 19 kilobases, that is 19,000 nucleotide bases long. That means that there are 19,000 different mutants possible after a single round of replication, and a single infected person might have millions of genetically different viruses in their body. Most of the mutants, however, do not survive, since some are more "fit" than others. The major significance of mutation is that it allows us to analyze the course of the outbreak--by sequencing the virus from different people, and comparing the sequences, we can trace the route of spread of the outbreak and determine where it started. Biologically, the significance of mutation can mean a virus is more or less efficient in any given function, but it does not change its functions.

If you really feel there is nothing to this, consider joining a doc or nurse in W. Africa with the US military.

When did I say that I "feel there is nothing to this"? I think very much that people deserve accurate information, and that the more people understand about the virus, the fewer complications they will create for the people who are over there trying to deal with the virus now.

Also, I have absolutely no problem with going to help out. I do not provide patient care; I analyze samples.

69 posted on 10/31/2014 4:47:29 PM PDT by exDemMom (Current visual of the hole the US continues to dig itself into: http://www.usdebtclock.org/)
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