One Flu Over the Cou-Cough"s Nest

I can make light of it now.  But not over two weeks ago.  (My apologies to the producers of the classic Jack Nicholson movie, "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest"). The New Year, starting on the eve of the 31st, ushered one of humanity's oldest punishers to visit and  inflict a successful invasion into one's physiology (namely mine) that from long ago had already forgotten what it was like to suffer from it.

Ordinarily, coughs and sneezing do not necessitate a doctor's visit.  Two days and nights of chills and achy joints will.  

After a 30-minute wait for the lab results the doctor came in, "I have good news and bad news.  The good news is that you do not have Covid.  The bad news is that you have the flu".

"How is that possible, Doc? I had the flu shot as I always had annually for over a decade now between Thanksgiving and the start of winter".

"Well, it's not always a 100%. Look at it this way.  Your symptoms could have been worse had you not had your flu shot." He replied. 

Since I had the lab test and was prescribed medications (2), I made it to the CDC statistical data bank.

From October, 2023 thru Jan. 6, 2024, CDC estimates said that there were 14-26 million cases of flu. I was one of 12 million who went to the doctor, but not one of 320,000 who had to be hospitalized; thankfully, not one of as much as 28,000 who did not make it through.  CDC states that these are estimates because it has no way of capturing all the cases. Take it for what it is - one of a few annual cautionary tales about this or that seasonal contagion.

This invasive visitation requires re-visiting the age-old question: Is a virus a living organism?  If not, what is it really? There was not a whole lot a flu-sickened person can do but to immerse oneself into the hidden micro-world of these tiny creatures.  

The Invisible Body Snatcher

Yes, indeed!   Standard light microscopes, using only natural light and a lens to magnify tiny organisms were all that were needed in 1675 when Anton van Leeuwenhoek invented the first device.  Bacteria for the first time was revealed. But it took another three centuries before scientists could have a grainy picture of the "invisible" virus. Viruses are so tiny that it took cutting edge microscopy to get a glimpse of it, namely, the electron microscope.

Whether a virus is a living organism has always been debated.  It does not fit the standard definition of a living entity because it is not able to reproduce on its own and it does not really metabolize nutrients like every living thing is able to do.  Below is one unique description by a research paper from the prestigious Cleveland Clinic.

"A virus is a small piece of genetic information in a “carrying case” — a protective coating called a capsid. Viruses aren’t made up of cells, so they don’t have all the equipment that cells do to make more copies of themselves. Instead, they carry instructions with them and use a host cell’s equipment to make more copies of the virus.

It’s like someone breaking into your house to use your kitchen. The virus brought its own recipe, but it needs to use your dishes, measuring cups, mixer and oven to make it. (Unfortunately, they usually leave a big mess when you finally kick them out.)"

It is not a parasite the way parasites affect their hosts.  But a virus is the ultimate survivor, a true alien invader and very resourceful at adapting to its environment for something so invisibly tiny.  How tiny?

A human hair is 75,000 nanometers; however, one nanometer is only  a billionth of a meter.  A virus is only 120 nanometers. Roughly, a virus is over 600 times smaller than the width of a human hair.  But how can it cause so much damage to animal physiology (birds, monkeys, humans, etc.) billions of times bigger than it is?  And why does it try to and at times actually does destroy its host?

Indeed, why?  It is both a scientific and philosophical question.  Let's set that aside for now.

Not only have we coexisted with microbes throughout our evolutionary journey for thousands of years, tiny organisms occupy our entire body, inside and out, and our very survival depends on over a 1,000 different species of trillions upon trillions of them residing on our skin, mucous membranes and in our gastrointestinal tract and gut. Not only do they present a barrier against harmful organisms, they actually synthesize vitamins and breakdown food into absorbable nutrients but stimulate our immune systems as well.  These organisms are so tiny that in sheer number (not by weight or volume) there are ten times more of them than there are human cells in our body.

We've cultured, synthesized, developed antibiotics against bacteria but not against a virus. But we can "train" our immune system to recognize, neutralize and attack viruses through prior exposure.  Exposure means our immune system recognizes the invader once an earlier assault was thwarted (and we survived that attack); or our immune system is exposed to a weakened strain of the virus in vaccines which  equates to a controlled exposure.

Interestingly, genetic researchers discovered that the human genome contains genetic codes associated with viruses in our distant past developments.  It is not too far fetched to conclude that in some ways or another, viruses may indeed have contributed to our development as a species. It would seem that our immune system today is what it is because  generations after generations of warfare and battle experiences have produced a standing army of reservists and veterans (whose traits, training and resolve became part of their nature) ready to defend. Or, like Spartans retaining the tradition of courage, physical traits and bravery handed down from parents to offspring, fathers to sons over generations of tradition. Okay, I was too over dramatic there but lightheadedness from the meds will make one's mind wander off. 

One important question is how does the virus manage to get through?  Is a virus a Trojan horse? 

Viruses actually have an easier entry than Homer's depiction in the Iliad of a giant wooden horse filled with Spartans left by the Greeks that the Trojans brought inside their fortress.  

Cold, flu and Corona viruses enter into our system as easily as we breathe in, as if by invitation. There is no quicker way to get to our circulatory system than through our noses, then into our lungs and through our blood stream.  Cleverer entry is via a hypodermic needle of the mosquitoes' proboscis through the pores of our skin, as in Malaria and dengue fever invasions.  The AIDS virus can literally be transmitted via an actual hypodermic needle in blood transfusions.  So, there it is.

New studies have postulated a new insight (new to me anyhow) into why colds and flu show up during the cold weather.  Supposedly our first line of defense relies on the warm interior of our noses and mucous membranes for our immune cells to work at maximum level for total readiness in combating microbial invaders. Exposing ourselves to the cold weather outside reduces that temperature that makes our immune cells weaker than usual. Viruses may enter through the air or, i.e., through door knobs, for example, and the moment we have our hands touch our noses, a few viruses can gain entry to do their mischief. We can take that theory with a grain of salt because viruses spread as easily in tropical weather and in relatively warmer climates.  We don't know what to conclude.  But  mothers have always warned about children and adults staying too long outside when the weather is cold.  And hence, the common cold illness.  You, the reader, be the judge.

Now, is the virus a living entity?  Not if we look at it from the perspective of how we define life.  It is just an entity, a genetic code, precluded from being a living cell. But it depends on a living cell to propagate itself. 

We can go off-tangent, and I mean really off-tangent. It is not just a survivor, it can lay dormant for years in any organism's lungs and when the conditions are right, it activates itself.  It can also move intra-species, as in the AIDS virus jumping from monkeys to humans, or the bird flu, or for Malaria transmissions via mosquitoes and microbial transfers from tsetse flies to humans, etc.  It is off-tangent to think that a virus is an extra-terrestrial invader.  It can survive under harsh conditions, it can mutate to fall under the "radar screen" of our defense system and what a clever way to replicate itself by tricking our own cells to make copies of itself.

However, the virus can also be deemed to have helped us along our evolutionary journey.  There lies the ambivalence of the nature of the virus. There also lies the conundrum for those who believe in The Creator, when asking the purpose of creatures deemed harmful to human life can lead to philosophical questions that will ultimately challenge one's faith.

On the other hand, for those relying mainly on the principle of the greatest good for the greatest number, the virus can be viewed mainly as an accessory to our development, except for the collateral hurt to the few, relatively speaking, for the greater good of the many.  The argument is that despite all the pandemics from the bubonic plague to the Spanish flu that killed millions, the human population is now at 8 billion from when it was a mere 450-475 million, that was drastically reduced by about 50-75 million after the plague.  Some people argue that viruses and bacteria may have killed so many but the survivors were made strong as a result.  And who knows before written history, how many virulent visitations had occurred without really hindering population growth.

Life has and has always found a way to survive. We are not equipped to fathom the mind of The Creator but to accept, if we adhere to the concept of creation, the idea that creatures great and small  each has a purpose we can never fully understand.