New coronavirus losing potency, top Italian doctor says -- Reuters

davfor

“In reality, the virus clinically no longer exists in Italy,” said Alberto Zangrillo, the head of the San Raffaele Hospital in Milan in the northern region of Lombardy, which has borne the brunt of Italy’s coronavirus contagion. “The swabs that were performed over the last 10 days showed a viral load in quantitative terms that was absolutely infinitesimal compared to the ones carried out a month or two months ago,” he told RAI television.

“The strength the virus had two months ago is not the same strength it has today,” said Matteo Bassetti, head of the infectious diseases clinic at the San Martino hospital in the city of Genoa. “It is clear that today the COVID-19 disease is different.”

https://reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-italy-virus/new-coronavirus-losing-potency-top-italian-doctor-says-idUSKBN2370OQ

WABAC

Seem like the sort of thing that would have to be shown by genetic sequencing.

royal4

Hopefully it'll fade away never to return... we can hope.

BennyB

royal 4-Im with you bro-all the way!!

expatsp

It seems too good to believe, and I can't find anyone else saying this aside from these two doctors in Italy... yet they seem like they're in a position to know. Anyone able to find anything confirming / disproving their theory?

Anna

Well, it follows previous patterns of coronavirus but news out of India report the opposite, mutations that are worse. For example, google "coronavirus India" in Google News. Here is my first hit:
https://www.indiatvnews.com/science/coronavirus-mutant-positive-cases-deaths-covid-19-scientists-614526

expatsp

Oh well, the WHO says no. And this guy used to be Berlusconi's personal doctor. Could be true, but it sounds like we shouldn't get our hopes too high yet.

davfor

@expatsp Thanks for the link. It doesn't explain what the Italian doctors have observed but it does suggest it is doubtful the virus losing its strength....

expatsp

Cross immunity (immunity due to exposure to similar viruses in the past, e.g. certain variants of the common cold) is another theory that might explain what's happening in Italy and elsewhere. Spain has just had its first day without any COVID-19 deaths. This was not expected when they started easing their lockdowns

Or it's just warm weather and we'll be royally screwed in the fall.

davfor

Here is a link to an article that reviews the initial report from Italy. A couple of takeaways:

...the clinical findings in Italy likely do not reflect any change in the virus itself. Zangrillo’s clinical observations are more likely a reflection of the fact that with the peak of the outbreak long past, there is less virus in circulation, and people may be less likely to be exposed to high doses of it. In addition, only severely sick people were likely to be tested early on, compared with the situation now when even those with mild symptoms are more likely to get swabbed, experts said.

All viruses evolve over time, and many infectious-disease experts think the novel coronavirus will eventually become less lethal to human beings, joining four other coronaviruses in causing common colds. But there is no solid evidence so far that it has changed significantly in the five months since it was first recognized among patients in Wuhan, China. “The virus hasn’t lost function on the time scale of two months,” said Andrew Noymer, an epidemiologist at the University of California at Irvine. “Loss of function is something I expect over a time scale of years.”

https://msn.com/en-ca/news/world/experts-dispute-reports-that-coronavirus-is-becoming-less-lethal/ar-BB14TMhE

Mark

New ARTICLE today from the Washington Post.

expatsp

Thanks for the links @davfor and @Mark. Sounds like it was too soon to get our hopes up.