More potent coronaviruses have emerged in recent years. MERS-CoV I is a beta coronavirus that causes Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, or MERS. SARS-CoV is a beta coronavirus that causes severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS. Today, the world is dealing with SARS-CoV-2 (the novel coronavirus that causes coronavirus disease 2019, or COVID-19. Now researchers are finding out that the newest strain has a "disturbing parallel to HIV" allowing for abnormal "depletion of important immune cells."
To better understand covid-19, virologists have analyzed its RNA sequence and its properties. Coronaviruses are characterized by the “spike protein” they produce in order to infect human immune cells. A team of researchers found four insertions in the spike glycoprotein (S) which are unique to the 2019-nCoV and are not present in other coronaviruses. In conjunction, the researchers identified amino acid residues in all four of the inserts that resembled amino acids from HIV-1 gp120 or HIV-1 Gag. When the researchers produced a 3D model of the 2019-nCoV, the inserts converged with these HIV properties to constitute a receptor binding site. In other words, this new virus had to be manipulated in a lab with HIV properties so it could bind more readily to human immune cells. Because initial outbreaks originated in Wuhan, China, there were immediate suspicions that coronavirus research and HIV research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology went afoul, and these biological experiments could have leaked (intentionally or unintentionally) from the lab.
In April, Professor Luc Montagnier, a 2008 Nobel Prize winner for Medicine, came right out and explained that SARS-CoV-2 was a manipulated virus that escaped containment from the Wuhan Institute of Virology. The lab, which worked extensively on coronaviruses, had previously used coronaviruses as a vector for HIV as they sought ways to develop an AIDS vaccine. The mere process of vaccine development was most likely the driving force that brought about this new virus, which (as we now know) caused great pain and suffering throughout the world.
There are now multiple international investigations into the CCP lab. The mainstream news outlets are now playing catch-up as they bring the issue back up for debate. Even the New York Times is reporting on this issue now. The NYT published a piece called, "How the Coronavirus Short-Circuits the Immune System." The studies they referenced found, "In a disturbing parallel to H.I.V., the coronavirus can cause a depletion of important immune cells.”
"Now researchers have discovered yet another unpleasant surprise. In many patients hospitalized with the coronavirus, the immune system is threatened by a depletion of certain essential cells, suggesting eerie parallels with H.I.V.," the article says.
The current research points to the Wuhan virus as having unique and complex gain-of-function properties. These properties include an enhanced attack on T cells, which are severely depleted in critically ill patients. The immune system, trying to compensate, may overreact, causing a cytokine storm or a sepsis-like response.
In covid-19 patients, there is a marked increase in IP10, a molecule which sends T cells to the necessary site of infection. This influx is reportedly causing “chaotic signaling” in patients' bodies. The T-cells can become confused and may act “aberrant.” The thymus gland, responsible for T cell creation, is more shriveled in people of older age. This is why vitamin C has shown great promise for patient recovery because it activates the thymus gland and T cell production. This is also why younger people recover faster; they have a more active thymus gland. Immunologists at King’s College London concur that the core goal should be to resurrect the innate immune system instead of suppressing it. Because the virus has properties of HIV, it could be around for a long time, warn the researchers. Whether covid-19 becomes endemic or not, why aren't health officials doing everything they can to educate the public on ways to mount a healthy immune response to overcome it?
Sources include: