Coronaviruses
Coronavirus is not a specific disease or a single virus but is referred to as a large group of viruses that infect both humans and animals. SARS, MERS and the new virus “COVID-19” are all strains of a coronavirus. According to WHO, signs of such viruses in humans include respiratory symptoms, fever, cough, and shortness of breath. The virus infection can cause pneumonia, kidney failure, and even death. The name Coronavirus is derived from the crown or corona-like appearance of infective viruses when seen under a microscope.
SARS-CoV (Past epidemic)
The most well-known case of a coronavirus epidemic was Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) identified by scientists as ‘SARS-Cov’. The virus after first being detected in 2002 and went on to affect 26 countries, resulting in more than 8,000 affected cases.
n-Cov (Recent epidemic)
The new virus which recently started spreading in late 2019 is identified by scientists as ‘nCoV’. It appears to be originated from Wuhan Seafood Market of China from where it was transmitted from animals to humans. In a detailed paper from the Wuhan Institute of Virology it is reported that genetic makeup of the current virus is 96% identical to coronavirus which is found in bats.
Vaccine of n-Cov
There is no existing vaccine for the cure of (n-Cov) Coronavirus which started in china and is spreading across. However, in recent findings by Thai doctors, a combination of drugs that are used to treat HIV when administered to the affected patient in large doses has shown “speedy” recovery. The patient is tested negative from the virus after 48 hours of the dose.
False claims of existing patents for n-CoV
However, as stated above that n-CoV of Wuhan is a newly discovered category of a virus but still, several false claims on various social media websites have been made stating that the Wuhan’s virus has already been patented in 2015.
It is a fact that several patents in the name of ‘Coronavirus’ do exist, but such patents are for a different type of coronavirus which is not similar to the one which currently causing the epidemic in China and worldwide
As mentioned earlier that Corona Virus actually refers to a large group of viruses, the virus n-CoV spreading in China and across several other countries worldwide has never been patented in the past. The n-CoV commonly referred to as Coronavirus is just one type within this vast family of viruses.
One of the existing patents mentioning the “live attenuated coronavirus vaccine” is essentially a weakened version of the virus, patented with the aim of eventually developing it into a vaccine against the disease for birds and other animals. The other supposedly related patents are for infections in poultry and not humans. Neither of those existing patents has anything to do with the new 2019-nCoV virus.
The patents like above and others similar to these were submitted by multiple governments and research groups to study vaccines and detection methods of past coronavirus strains.
Conclusion
Therefore, it is now clear that the speculations of coronavirus being created in lab, patented and has a vaccine is completely baseless and false. Researchers are yet to understand the origin, spread, and vaccination of the latest coronavirus strain. To put simply, all patents referring to coronavirus are real, but they are about other viruses of the same category and not the one that’s currently causing the epidemic.
