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What is Covid-19 and How has it evolved?

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What is Covid-19 and How has it evolved?

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Covid is a pathogen that causes fever, severe respiratory problems, and even pneumonia. On January 30th 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared Coronavirus to be a Public Health Emergency of International Concern. On March 11th of 2020, WHO declared the start of the global pandemic.

Covid-19 has been characterised as a new member of the betacoronavirus family. This version of Coronavirus is related to multiple bat coronaviruses and severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS-CoV).

The spike protein has evolved many times through genetic mutation (in this case, RNA mutation) during the replication process. This allows the virus to be in its optimal fitness and be in its most beneficial state (of course).

The spike protein has evolved many times through genetic mutation (in this case, RNA mutation) during the replication process. This allows for the virus to be in its optimal fitness and be in its most beneficial state (for the virus of course).

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The lungs are part of the respiratory system, and their job is to move fresh oxygen throughout the body while also removing gas waste. But how did the lungs get to where they are today in the human body? It has been said by biologists that the lungs originated from gas bladders that functioned for gas exchange as well as buoyancy in fish. These fish then evolved into two distinct classes of organisms, mammals and birds. The mammals are thought to come from the group of reptiles known as the cynodonts. While the birds are thought to come from the theropod dinosaurs. Interestingly enough, many of the bodily systems were similar, except the lungs. As the mammals evolved and become larger and more complex, the evolution of the lungs followed. Up until today, where humans have two lungs that sit within the thoracic cavity of the chest.

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There are many reasons why humans get sick, from viruses (like Coronavirus) to bacteria, to mutations within the human body. According to the author Shubin, we humans are not programmed to live up until 80 when we sit for about 10 hours a day, eat unhealthy/fatty foods and play football. Humans were very different from how we are today. This lifestyle evolution shows the predictable ways humans can get sick and injured. All illnesses that humans encounter have been seen in history. An example of this is past pandemics. The H1N1 pandemic that took place in 1918 (About 100 years ago) was one of the deadliest pandemics dated. Another pandemic that took the world by storm was the (H1N1)pdm09 virus that took place in 2009. The pandemic that is closely related to the one we are currently experiencing was the SARS outbreak. From this, we can see that illness has followed us from the very beginning and still comes back every few years. And it seems like us as humans never learn from the past mistakes made.

Our evolution from fish to humans did not prepare us for what we would be dealing with today. Such as our sedentary lifestyle to dying from the disease. During ancient times, we were active predators that preyed on different animals from reptiles to fish. During the primate times, we were actively climbing trees and feeding on those fruits and leaves. But all of that has changed today. We sit around more, eat unhealthy foods, and don’t get enough exercise. This all contributes to diseases such as heart disease, diabetes, strokes/heart attacks, and even obesity. Due to this, in 1962 James Neel created the “thrifty gene” hypothesis. Essentially hypothesizing that our ancestors were adapted for the boom-bust cycle. This cycle has a large part in our genes and illness. Fat storage was very useful in the past, as our ancestors would deal with periods of famine and the energy from the fat could be used for a later time. This no longer works in today’s world, as rich fatty foods are readily available at all times. And due to the amount of energy these foods hold, humans naturally gravitate towards them. Our sedentary lifestyle also plays a role here. We have the circulatory system of a very active animal. The active movement helps allow for blood to flow throughout the entire body. Now with a lifestyle that has people sitting down more often, blood will pool in those areas, and not pump efficiently.

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Coronavirus attacks the epithelial cells that line the airways in our lungs, leading to the flooding of the airways with fluids and debris. People can have mild to severe symptoms while other people are asymptomatic. It can lead to mild complications such as coughing or shortness of breath to more severe and life-threatening complications such as pneumonia or organ failure. Symptoms can last from 7 to 10 days, but some people experience it for more than 2 weeks. The aftermath can also be difficult to deal with after testing negative and no longer being infectious. The long term effects can range from fatigue to post-exertional malaise. These can last for up to 4 weeks.

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The Effect of Covid-19 on Human Evolution

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The Effect of Covid-19 on Human Evolution

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As we can see, Covid-19 has greatly affected the human population. From just an illness standpoint, mental health, and how it has affected our evolution. We as humans already have evolved to live a lifestyle that has fattier food and less physical activity. But after the initial hit of Covid-19, it's not hard to see that we have gotten “worse”. Due to many business closures, many places turned to work online (even schools). Which has people sitting down for even longer times and not getting enough physical activity, compared to when we worked in person. Many people have also turned to fast food or foods that aren't very healthy for you to save time. It has disrupted sleep schedules, exercise schedules, and even time management. The way the pandemic has changed the world and how humans are currently functioning, we could see humans evolving to the point where obesity could be the norm (like Wall-E). Or the exact opposite could happen. Once the pandemic moves to an endemic, we may become more active, like our ancestors were.

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Chiu, Y.-H.; Ko, K.-T.; Yang, T.-J.; Wu, K.-P.; Ho, M.-R.; Draczkowski, P.; Hsu, S.-T. D. Direct Visualization of a 26 KDA Protein by Cryo-Electron Microscopy Aided by a Small Scaffold Protein. Biochemistry 2021, 60 (14), 1075–1079.

Grobbelaar, L. M.; Venter, C.; Vlok, M.; Ngoepe, M.; Laubscher, G. J.; Lourens, P. J.; Steenkamp, J.; Kell, D. B.; Pretorius, E. SARS-COV-2 Spike Protein S1 Induces Fibrin(Ogen) Resistant to Fibrinolysis: Implications for Microclot Formation in COVID-19. Bioscience Reports 2021.

Shubin, N. Your inner fish: A journey into the 3.5-billion-year history of the human body; Vintage Books: New York, 2014.

Post-covid conditions.
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/long-term-effects/index.html (accessed Apr 10, 2022).

Learn about covid-19. https://www.lung.org/lung-health-diseases/lung-disease-lookup/covid-19/about-covid-19#:~:text=The%20lungs%20are%20the%20first,airways%20with%20debris%20and%20fluids. (accessed Apr 19, 2022).

Alberts, B. Essential Cell Biology; W.W. Norton & Company: New York, 2019.