Researcher addresses COVID myths
The Southern Alberta Council on Public Affairs welcomed University of Lethbridge biochemistry researcher Trushar Patel to its weekly YouTube livestream speaker series to talk about the origins of the coronavirus and the worldwide effort to produce viable, safe and effective vaccines.
Patel took on some common misconceptions about the origins of the virus and the COVID-19 disease. First, he said the virus was not produced in a lab in China as some have speculated, but more likely finds its ultimate origins in bats, who are known to have 3,200 different types of coronavirus variants spread over 1,400 species of the flying mammal.
Most of those are not transmissible to human beings or other species we are aware of, he said, but this variant, (formally called by scientists SARS-CoV 2), which produces COVID-19 most likely mutated to either infect humans directly from bats or through another species infected by the bats, perhaps a pangolin, in a process called zoonoses.
Patel also explained this is the third type of coronavirus that has caused an major outbreak in the past 20 years after SARS in 2002 and MERS in 2012, but the 2019 variant is more closely related to the original SARS on the viral family tree.
Patel went on to explain that another misconception about COVID-19 is that it is an influenza, and it certainly is not, he stated, with a higher infection rate, a much longer incubation time in the human body, a much higher hospitalization rate, and a much higher fatality rate than the most common flues.
He also stated the current vaccines for the virus are highly effective and safe because they are based on targeted mRNA technology, and they have had full laboratory trials and human trials before being released to the general public.
They have come out so quickly because the technology is already quite advanced, and thanks to the collective knowledge-sharing which went into their development across all nations of the world.
Patel did acknowledge
Canada is lagging behind in vaccinations due to a shortage of doses, and he pointed to the Trudeau Liberal government’s strategy as part of the problem when asked by SACPA attendees why Canada does not seem to have its own manufacturing capacity to supply its own citizens.
“That would be a question that Mr. Trudeau should answer, and not me, about the manufacturing capacity,” he replied.
“I do admit we should have that capacity already existing. But this pandemic has been very educational for us in the sense we realize we should have our own vaccine research.
“We do have it, very strong, but we can make it even better, and we should have our own manufacturing plants to manufacture it.
“Having said that, we also have to consider the other situation where the heavy muscles are outside of Canada, in terms of manufacturing capacity.
“So if we want to start building largescale manufacturing capacity that would produce millions and millions of doses, in a short amount of time, that might be challenging.”
Patel said the Trudeau government attempted to find a shortcut around this capacity problem by contracting outside the country.
“I think the government strategy was to secure 16 million doses, and if they all come on time they don’t have to go through the hassle of making and manufacturing the vaccines,” he explained.
“The approach they have taken was probably a bit faster; however, it did not play out the way they wanted it to play out. So we are having short supplies.”