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AFP 02 June 2020
On Monday, the World Health Organization stressed that the new coronavirus has not become less pathogenic, as certain claims by a leading Italian doctor said that coronavirus might have lost some of its potency. WHO emergencies director Michael Ryan said this during a virtual press briefing.
The Italian government has urged caution, as the claims by Alberto Zangrillo has sparked a furore on Monday. Zangrillo, head of the San Raffaele Hospital in Milan, which is the capital of the north Lombardy region, said that in reality, the virus clinically doesn’t exist any longer in Italy. Italy has been the worst-hit country by the coronavirus pandemic. On Sunday, he told RAI television that the swabs performed in the last 10 days has shown a viral load which is completely infinitesimal in quantitative terms as compared to those carried a month or two months ago.
Other experts pressed cries of disbelief, stating that Zangrillo might have mistaken a higher detection rate of asymptomatic cases for weakened potency of the coronavirus.
The WHOs Ryan, an expert epidemiologist, indicated the dangers of believing that the virus is becoming less potent.
New viruses in human populations can evolve and might become less pathogenic, or at times they can even become more pathogenic. Ryan further said that it is not in the interests of the virus to kill everyone it infected as it may possibly survive better if it keeps transmitting between people. Everyone needs to be careful because it is still a killer virus.
Ryan said that a possible explanation for what Zangrillo had claimed according to his observation might be with something to do with the dose and extent of intensity of exposure. In other words, it means that the total amount of virus you are exposed to can decide how severe your disease can be. It has been proven for other diseases; however they dont know whether it’s the case for COVID-19.
It might not be that the coronavirus is becoming less potent but it could be that we as a community, are successfully decreasing the number, intensity and frequency of exposure to the novel coronavirus.
He further said that apparently, the virus looks weaker but it might be weaker because we are doing better and not because the virus is weakening.
Source: ET Healthworld
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