William A. Haseltine, Contributor

With cases continuing to surge across the US, it is clear that we need a different approach.

A recent paper by Smyth et al. extracted SARS-CoV-2 samples from fourteen wastewater treatment plants in the City. The team developed methods to detect mutations in a critical region of the genome, the receptor-binding domain of the Spike protein.

In addition to inhibiting interferon production, the Covid-19 virus SARS-CoV-2 blocks induction of interferon-stimulated genes critical to the adaptive immune resopnse.

The Covid-19 virus devotes a tremendous array of proteins to blocking not only the induction of interferon and its export but also interferon-stimulated genes.

In previous installments I described how nonspecific suppression manifests during protein translation. In this piece I discuss how SARS-CoV-2 avoids ending up in the cell’s waste disposal systems.

A study from the University College of London finds over a fifth (22 percent) of adults say they have experienced a complete breakdown of a relationship with either family, friends, colleagues, or a partner in the past year.

The Covid-19 virus, SARS-CoV-2, blocks signaling proteins that would otherwise alert surrounding cells to the presence of an intruder.

There is a short string of nucleotides in SARS-CoV-2, as well as most coronaviruses, that has the potential to initiate protein synthesis between 150 and 200 nucleotides prior to the initiation of the first major protein in the virus, Orf1a.

SARS-CoV-2 blocks expression of almost all cellular genes and proteins to favor its own messenger RNA and protein synthesis.