The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
The victims of the first wave of the pandemic caused by the coronavirus
Modern biological science considers a population as a structural unit of a species and an evolutionary process. The main criteria of the population are the number and structure. Population size is influenced by such factors as mortality and birth rate. These are the main processes, the ratio of which determines whether the population will increase, decrease or remain stable. An extremely important role in shaping the structure and size of the population is played by the factor of ecology
English economist and philosopher Thomas R. Maltus (1766-1834), studying the laws of the demographic process, created a theory according to which the growth of the human population occurs exponentially, while the accumulation of food resources is subject to a linear relationship
In a later historical period, the prediction of the size of a human population began to be studied from the point of view of the hyperbolic law of growth
Evidence of such a rapid growth of population on planet Earth can be an increase in the population from 2 to 7 billion in 70 years after the end of the 2nd World War.
The post-war demographic explosion of the population was accompanied by a change in the qualitative composition of the population and renewal of its structure. A functionally active role in society began to fall on the shoulders of the younger generation. The main engine of scientific and technological progress in society has become intelligence, based on knowledge acquired at universities. As a result of the development of highly efficient technological schemes, civilization has been enriched with modern industry and new types of energy. At the same time, it has been established that about 6 billion tons of CO 2 enter the Earth's atmosphere annually by man-made routes. The ecology of planet Earth is facing the problem of global warming and climate change: an ecological crisis has become inevitable
It is difficult to assess the damage caused to the human population from disasters at nuclear facilities such as Chelyabinsk-40 (1957), Chernobyl (1986), Fukushima (2011).
In the middle of the 20th century, a revolutionary event in the field of biological science was the discovery of the double-stranded structure of DNA
The idea of obtaining highly active pathogens by genetic engineering was picked up by specialists developing bacteriological weapons. Despite the prohibition by the UN, in countries with authoritarian (totalitarian) regimes, such as the USSR, China, North Korea, Iran, the accumulation of highly dangerous pathogens continued
History knows the terrible epidemics of plague, cholera, smallpox that struck the population of Europe during the Middle Ages. They ended with a huge number of human victims, the memory of which today is preserved by monuments erected in large cities such as Vienna, Geneva, Munich and others, as well as dozens of tombstones in the squares of small towns throughout Europe. As a result, these epidemics were defeated with the help of appropriate sanitary and hygienic measures and effective vaccine preparations developed by scientists.
The civilization of the twentieth century was subjected to no less dangerous infection with influenza virus (Influenza epidemic 1918-1919), which infected 1/5 of the world's population. Among the sick, the death rate exceeded 20 million people
The scale of the impending environmental threat from the climate turned out to be incomparable with the sudden danger to the lives of people on planet Earth, which was brought by the coronavirus, previously unknown to science and medical practice. The catastrophically rapid spread of the deadly virus around the world forced WHO in March 2020 to declare the epidemic situation a pandemic.
A study of the history of the origin of the
For the first time, a strain of
Coronavirus strain
There are not enough statistics to single out a certain age group that is most susceptible to infection with coronavirus. However, practical medicine in some countries believes that elderly patients (75-80 years old) come to the clinic with a diagnosis of coronavirus infection much more often. It appears that children under the age of 12 are less susceptible to the effects of the
The
It can be assumed that the lipid component, in addition to the protective role, also performs an adhesive function. He takes part in the binding of the viral particle to the surface of the mucous membrane of the respiratory tract. This binding does not have the character of a strict specific ligand-receptor interaction, but is carried out through a simple ion-ion contact. A slight violation of the physico-chemical balance can explain the global spread of the virus in the environment.
Like lipid A of Gram-negative bacteria, coronavirus lipid does not have antigenic properties, i.e. does not induce an antibody response of the immune system. It follows that there is no reason to expect an antibody response to the viral lipid in patients who have had a corona virus infection
A specific role in the binding of the viral part to the target cell, apparently, is played by the protein component of the lipid-peptide structure. This component enters into a ligand-receptor interaction with the corresponding receptor on the cell surface.
Analysis of the sequence of nucleotide bases in the RNA genome, a segment of the Covid-19 strain, revealed a modification compared to the genome of the progenitor natural coronavirus SARS Cov-2. This modification, apparently, determined the high degree of pathogenicity of the
The third segment, which is a protein synthesized after the fusion of the virus RNA with the genome of the lung tissue target cell, has the function of a damaging factor. And although the biological activity of this pathogenicity factor has not yet been established, it can be assumed that it has the properties of collagenase. Kellogenase activity is evidenced by blood clots thrombosing the blood vessels of the lung tissue of the deceased.
In addition to symptoms of a respiratory and cold-like nature, clinical patients infected with
According to German authors, sensitivity to
A study by Italian doctors of pathological materials from 50 patients who died with a diagnosis of coronavirus infection showed the absence of lesions in the lungs characteristic of bacterial pneumonia. Instead of destroying lung tissue cells, blood vessels and capillaries were filled with blood clots. Blood clots prevented the circulation of oxygen in the lungs, which caused a lethal effect. The conclusion of Italian doctors confirmed the fallacy of treating coronavirus infection with methods suitable for bacterial pneumonia
So far, there is no convincing data on the presence of protective immunity in patients who have had a coronavirus infection. However, isolated cases indicate the presence of a weak immune response to a primary infection caused by
In the first months of the pandemic, experts studying the patterns of development of epidemic processes argued that a pandemic caused by a strain of
In some countries of the world where the pandemic has subsided, WHO notes the resumption of the second wave of the pandemic. It seems that those who have recovered from
As of 25 July 2022, according to WHO, there are 10566,977,818 confirmed cases of Covid-19 worldwide, including 6,376,503 deaths
After almost 2 years of the pandemic, the inadequacy of administrative and organizational measures in the fight against coronavirus
Nevertheless, it can already be said now that the pandemic has left a severe psychological trauma in the minds of the entire human race. Undoubtedly, the consequences of the pandemic will affect not only the size of the population, but also the well-being and well-being of the population as a whole.