A (Covid) virus question

[Dave7]

Sat here, picking fluff out of my belly button when this popped into my mind.
When 'they' show graphics of the Covid virus it is shown as individual blobs that penetrate your system.
If it is individual nasty 'spikey blobs'..........
Are they like sperm eg just one of them will get you and do the job or does it need many of the little b*ggers ?
I am visualising a situation where you walk by a carrier that suddenly coughs/sneezes. Does it take multiple droplets or will just one do it?
BTW......its a serious question.

 

[Blue Hills]

I'm off to ask the mods why you can't select laugh and like at the same time.

Looking forward to the replies to this.

yep a fair question - all the best - stay safe.

I'm sure it can't possibly be like sperm as I assume you are totally safe from the consequences of that.

 

[fossyant]

I assume the more you are exposed to it, the worse it gets. So if you only fleetingly get exposed to it, you either may, or may not get the virus. If you are in close contact with someone, and you are exposed to lots of the virus, the more likely you'll get it, and possibly more worse symptoms - e.g.g medical staff are getting really poorly with it due to exposure to lots of the virus.

Just my thoughts on a rainy morning.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

The amount of virus you are initially exposed too directly corresponds to how severe it will be in you. The virus replicates by taking over our cells machinery, so the more cells infected the faster it can replicate. It takes the immune system a while to ramp up against it. So the less virus there is to fight, the better the chance the immune system has to overcome it.

Reading about the vaccines, between the two doses they give you about 1 x 10 ^ 11 viral particles. So about 100 billion. Whilst one viral particle may manage to get in a cell I doubt it’d get far before the immune system blasted it. You’d likely not see any symptoms at all.

The immune system essentially has two arms. The innate and the adaptive. The innate is the one that recognises cells that are foreign or damaged and simply kills them. The adaptive is the one that recognises specific viruses and can stop them infecting cells to start with. So one virus particle will likely get tackled by innate fairly easily before it breaks out of a cell. There likely won’t be an adaptive response at all. So little to no protection against bigger loads.

 

[Oldhippy]

I think it may have something to do with something called viral load.

 

[matticus]

viral load

Yes, that seems to be the key word the Scientists use for this. Worth googling.

 

[midlife]

As Ming says it’s complicated. Outside the body it’s called a virion. The number needed to actually infect you varies. Last time I looked for Norovirus it’s as low as nine !

 

[Landsurfer]

Interesting how in so many couples only one gets it .....

 

[matticus]

Interesting how in so many couples only one gets it .....

Probably both infected, one doesn't get any symptoms?
...

 

[vickster]

Immune response varies from individual to individual also presumably...unless you're married to your identical twin?

 

[MichaelW2]

Some research with some viruses shows tha infection may be possible with exposure to one virus thingy (virion).
In humans, the virus has to gain entry then evade or avoid the immune response, so, as Stalin said, "Quantity has a Quality of its own".

 

[Ming the Merciless]

Immune response varies from individual to individual also presumably...unless you're married to your identical twin?

And even identical twins won’t have exactly the same response, as it also depends on the state of the immune system which is a function of lifestyle as well as genetics etc.

 

[Deleted member 26715]

Immune response varies from individual to individual also presumably...unless you're married to your identical twin?

We're in the UK, not the deep South of USofA

Wasn't track & trace setup so that it would only register if you had been in the same area as a carrier/victim for a specific length of time & not just a fleeting chance encounter as you passed in the Supermarket. Usual caveat I might be completely incorrect

 

[vickster]

It was errr a joke...

 

[Deleted member 26715]

It was errr a joke...

Errr I think we all understood that