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Robert Rounthwaite's avatar

Keep in mind that whatever viruses you select to use, you are having a huge impact on the virus's evolution -- giving this particular variation a huge leg up on the others. So this selection should be made very carefully.

Note that one factor the virus seems to have evolved differences in is exactly one you care about -- viral load.

"Ultra deep sequencing of 11 Chinese patient-derived viral isolates from a single hospital in Hangzhou ("average coverage exceeding 2,000,000 X)"...."These patients therefore constitute 1st and 2nd generations of the viral victims based on their epidemiological history"... "We observed diverse mutations in these viral isolates, including 6 different mutations in the spike glycoprotein (S protein), and 2 of which are different SNVs that led to the same missense mutation. Importantly, these viral isolates show significant variation in cytopathic effects and viral load, up to 270-fold differences, when infecting Vero-E6 cells. Therefore, we provide direct evidence that the SARS-CoV-2 has acquired mutations capable of substantially changing its pathogenicity." https://www.medrxiv.org/con...

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Nicholas Campbell's avatar

The receptor for the virus is ACE-2 in the lungs. However, this receptor is also expressed in the gastro-intestinal tract. Taking the innocuous in pill form might even spare the lung for viral replication.

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