I have written five previous blog posts about coronavirus. In those posts I told you that I thought the final mortality rate in the US for COVID-19 would be comparable to the flu mortality rate. Right now, the COVID-19 mortality rate is very high—around 2%. The flu mortality rate is estimated to be approximately 0.01% per year. My reasoning for lowering the mortality rate for COVID-19 was that not enough sick people have been tested. The tests in the US have been rationed to very sick and dying individuals.
In China, at the start of the crises, I would imagine the same phenomenon was going on—only the very sick were tested. Therefore, those that had COVID-19 and convalesced at home were not included in the data. That would skew the results to make the mortality numbers look much worse than the actually were.
The same situation could be occurring in other countries. Of course, in the US, the CDC botched the test kits and we simply do not know how widespread or deadly this disease is. More information about that can be found in my fifth coronavirus blog post which you may read here: ‘Corona Virus Part V: The Epic Failure at The Centers For Disease Control & Prevention”.
One question I was bothered with was why so many younger male Chinese were dying from COVID-19. It seems that in other countries, COVID-19 was primarily killing the old and the sick. Which is just what you would expect from a regular influenza season.
I was speaking to a colleague today, Tetyana Obukhanych, PhD. She is an immunologist who I have been following for years. She forwarded me two articles that could explain why the Chinese (and young Chinese males) suffered such a high rate of mortality from COVID-19.
A February, 2020 article about coronavirus reported that the virus is able to invade the body by binding to angiotensin-converting enzyme II (ACE 2). ACE 2 is expressed in mucosal lining of the oral cavity. So, when exposed to coronavirus, COVID-19 gains entrance into the body by binding to the ACE 2 receptors in the oral cavity.
Guess where other ACE 2 receptors have been found? High ACE 2 expression has also been found in lung cells. (2) Pneumonia is one the most serious problems associated with COVID-19. ACE 2 has also been identified in other areas of the body including the esophagus, heart, kidney and bladder. All these organs are potential risks of infection for COVID-19.
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