Want To Get "Corona-cated"? This Is The Post For You!

Welcome back corona-slayers! Sorry for the extended hiatus. Did you miss us? Who are we kidding of course you did. We’re back here today with a topic we believe is a must-know! We are about to corona-cate (educate about coronavirus) you! Our topic for today is about the actual virus itself, and how it can harm the body. The internet throws many words at you (virus, bacteria, antiviral, immune system, infections, respiratory, etc.) that you may not know the meaning to, but as we have said before, knowledge is power. Today’s blog is focused on helping you understand what COVID-19 is, and how it affects you. A lot of hard work went into this blog, and the best way to show your support is by sharing the link, commenting, and subscribing to email notifications. And away we go!

Characteristics of the virus itself:

The true biological name of the coronavirus is Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Related Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). A virus is basically a sack of protein with genetic material inside, in simple terms. That genetic material, called RNA (ribonucleic acid), helps the virus create more of itself and spread.
Coronavirus falls within the family coronaviridae, which contains other types of viruses such as bronchitis and hepatitis. Because the coronavirus has the largest genome (set of genetic material) out of any type of virus, it has multiple methods of procreating itself.
Original identification of coronaviruses began in the 1960s when new pathogens were being discovered, but at the time scientists left them as similar to the bronchitis and hepatitis viruses. Only during the SARS outbreak in 2002-2003 did they start studying it in depth.
The virus is made up of a protein coat that surrounds its genetic material. It has spikes on the outside called “peplomers”. These spikes give coronavirus the name “corona”, as they resemble the sun’s corona (rays) during a solar eclipse.
The virus spreads its genetic material via virions, the infectious agents that we perceive when we think of the virus.
The virion is spherical and pleomorphic (can have different sizes). The sizes range from 80-120 nm.
It enters the body via droplets and attacks lung cells by corrupting their vital inner processes.

How Does It Replicate & Infect Your Body?

First, the virus enters the body by either direct contact with someone who has the virus or if someone with the virus breathes, sneezes, or coughs on to an individual.
After entering the body, the virus comes into contact with cells in your throat, nose, or lungs. Spike proteins (Shown in the diagram) on the coronavirus then bind to a receptor (called ACE2) on a healthy cell membrane.
This stimulates a cleavage which leads to a process by which the virion can later share its genetic components with the cell.
Through receptor-mediated endocytosis (Method cells use to absorb metabolites, hormones, proteins – and in this case viruses) , the virus goes through the cell membrane and into the cell.
Instead of entering the host cell’s nucleus like the flu would, the coronavirus directly infects and accesses the (Structure in the cell that makes proteins using genetic information) in the cytoplasm by releasing an RNA (ribonucleic acid) strand.
Afterwards, the infected ribosomes use genetics from the RNA virus strand to synthesize different viral proteins that make up a coronavirus virion.
Once multiple virions are created in a single cell, the cell carries out a message from these virions to commit apoptois, or suicide.
Once the cell is dead, it releases the virus to infect other lung cells.
After a point, millions of cells are either infected or dead in the lungs, and coronavirus starts infecting blood cells, aka your immune system.

How Does It Harm Your Body?

Mucus helps protect lung tissue from pathogens and make sure your breathing organ doesn’t dry out.
The cilia cells around the mucus clear out debris like pollen or viruses.
The coronavirus infects and kills cilia cells, which then shed off and fill patients’ airways with debris and fluids.
Aroused by the presence of a viral invader, our bodies step up to fight the disease by flooding the lungs with immune cells to clear away the damage and repair the lung tissue.
When working properly, this inflammatory process is tightly regulated and confined only to infected areas.
However, your immune system goes haywire and those cells kill anything in their way, including your healthy tissue.
Eventually lung tissue starts deteriorating and alveoli that help you breath become infected with bacteria, eventually leading to death these bacteria tend to cause the most damage, not the immune system or coronavirus immune system is exhausted at this point.
Even more debris clogs up the lungs, and pneumonia worsens.
Essentially, by attaching to and reproducing in tissue inside the lungs, the virus kills cells in the process of spreading and as the cells are killed they drop off the lungs' linings and build up in clumps inside the organs, making it hard to breathe and triggering further infections.
In combination with sending the immune system into overdrive as it tries to fight off infection, the virus causes mass swelling and severe breathing difficulties.

We would like to note that if you practice social distancing, all of these things happening to you are extremely rare. Flattening the curve can help hospitals accommodate patients and can lower the overall affected count. Thank you for reading this post, and remember to comment, share, and subscribe to email notifications! We don’t want to bore you any longer with any facts, so here are some memes!