Covid 19: The Science explained
Coronavirus, how it works and its history
About the author
Dr. Jay Gralla is emeritus professor of Biochemistry at UCLA. He has done research at Yale, Harvard, The Pasteur Institute, MIT and of course at UCLA.
Blog Posts:
NOTE: to read the whole blog beginning with Post 1 click here.
23. Long COVID – Who should worry?
With COVID it seems there is always something to worry about. In the early days it was getting sick and dying. Then it was the danger of new and ever-scarier variants. And now its long COVID. I know that many of you have been concerned about this, but because the scientific studies were not of…
22. Omicron news: current risks, future prospects
In the month since my post on Omicron we have learned a great deal more about it. The big news is the discovery that Omicron has developed a way to get inside cells never seen before in COVID viruses. Because some types of cells allow this entry and others don’t, the course of the pandemic…
21: Omicron: the real science and when to test for it.
You’ve heard it all about Omicron. It’s twice as contagious. No, it’s 20 times more contagious. It evades the antibodies induced by vaccines. No, the vaccines work fine. Omicron’s symptoms are milder than those of other variants. No, they’re just the same. Breakthrough infections are rampant. Or maybe not. So, what’s really going on? We…
20. Pills and an end-game preview
Yes, Covid-19 pills really are coming. And they really do work. This post contains the scoop on the 2 pills and what it will take to make them a truly effective way of stopping us from getting seriously ill from Covid. I’ll tell you about the evidence that the pills are both safe and effective.…
19. All about the Delta variant
In the 2 months since I gathered information for the last blog post the COVID-19 landscape has changed dramatically. In June, the Delta variant was just arriving on our shores. Now, it has taken over. If you follow the news at all you have heard that Delta is way more dangerous. Is this true? Well,…
18. Vaccinated – Now What?
Now that you’re vaccinated, what happens next? Do you need to worry about getting COVID, especially in light of news about the appearance of ever scarier variants? Are the reports about your immunity slowly losing the fight against these variants true? If you get COVID can you spread it? Is it best to continue wearing…
17. Variant viruses: should we worry?
Mutant virus variants have been much in the news lately. Breathless reporters look serious as they pronounce that mutants are coming. Scary headlines shout the dangers. The internet is full of dire predictions. Will they spread uncontrollably? Make you sicker? Render the vaccines useless? These variants are no fantasy and are indeed beginning to dominate…
16. COVID turns one: how it spread and killed
December marks the first birthday of COVID-19. Just a year ago, in the dark days near the Winter Solstice, a lethal combination of exotic genes emerged from the Wuhan wild animal market. Somehow, coronaviruses from bats, pangolins and humans mixed, exchanged genes and caught hold in a human. Doctors started seeing cases of “atypical pneumonia”…
15. m-RNA vaccines: the very good, the bad and the ugly
A number of you have asked me to write a post on the new m-RNA vaccines, so here goes. Obviously, the announcement that 2 such vaccines appear to be more than 90% effective is great news. But an m-RNA vaccine has never been used, which means there are many unknowns. So I will cover the…
14. Trump’s extraordinary treatment: the science behind it
This update covers the science behind the extraordinary treatment that President Trump is receiving for his infection. In addition, at the end of this post there is a link to a slide show talk about the spread of COVID-19. I presented this show 2 days before he was diagnosed. As I write this, the president…
13. FAQs: kids and COVID; vaccines and antibodies
I’ve heard that kids are resistant to COVID-19. What’s going on? No, kids are not resistant, but the young ones do get sick much less often. Recently, a huge study of over 60,000 people in Korea told us how kids fared in that country. First of all, those roughly 10 and older didn’t fare much…
12. FAQs: safe to travel or return to work?
Some questions have come up during the month since the last post. So here is a bit of an update. Is it safe to travel or go back to an office? Of course, it’s better to stay home where you have worked out a routine that has kept you safe so far. If you must…
11. FAQs and updates on Covid-19 science
A number of readers have asked questions and so here I will try to answer some of them. I will also give brief science updates where a bit more has become clear during the last month. Q1: I want to be careful. Do we know anything more about how the virus spreads? Think of it…
10. Will there be a cure? Or at least a treatment?
In Iran, the imams told them to drink toxic methanol and many did. In India it was cow urine, drunk in parties organized by clerics. A U.S. televangelist touted the curative powers of colloidal silver and sold plenty of it. In the UK, people toppled 5G cell phone towers in the belief that their radiation…
9. The race for Covid-19 vaccines
Until nearly the 20thcentury 1 in 4 infants didn’t reach their first birthday and 1 in 2 never reached adulthood. In parts of Asia, even today, some infants are not named until they are 100 days old. In a ritual cave near Dunhuang, China, for centuries newborns were passed through 4 symbolic gates, each representing…
8. Antibodies try to come to the rescue
The two Foreign Service officers were brolly-carrying, buttoned-up, career diplomats, not health experts. Who knows what they thought upon disembarking in Shanghai, an 11-hour flight from London. They had been sent by Boris Johnson, the increasingly desperate British Prime Minister. Johnson, like his role model Trump, had mostly dismissed the dangers of Covid-19. But now…
7. Covid-19 vs. your immune system: the first few days
During the deadly 1918 flu pandemic the hospitals filled up with young people. Soldiers, having survived the horrors of trench warfare, were laid out, lifeless, on gurneys in hallways. Their sweethearts were there too, girls and young women in their prime. Who was missing? Old people. But in the morgues holding victims of the 2020…
6. The virus is here and we are not ready
During the last week in February, when thousands had already died of Covid-19 overseas, the President appeared to be unconcerned. His administration had disbanded the White House office that was supposed to warn about incoming epidemics and to prepare for them. On the 24th, speaking from the White House in Washington DC, he said “the…
5. The virus spreads, and mutates again
In early Winter the virus left Wuhan in cars and trains, carrying infected people to visit far-flung relatives in China. It left on short flights bound for warm holiday spots in Asia and on long-haul flights to the U.S., Europe and the Middle East. It made its way to cruise ships that stopped in those…
4. The mutant takes over cells and multiplies
After the Wuhan market was shut down, legions of health inspectors, clad in white protective suits, looking as if they had just landed on the moon, scurried around the dirty corridors. They swabbed pretty much everywhere, floors, walls, abandoned tables and cages, wherever there was a surface. They wore respirators and probably didn’t take them…
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Covid19: The Science Explained 