I'm not sure if this was posted yet, but reported in the
South China Morning Post, COVID-19 has an "HIV-Like" mutation, causing it to be 100-1000 times more strong than the SARS virus. You can read this article, but you'll wish you paid more attention in that microbiology class back in college.
What I gather from this, is that COVID-19 has the ability to mutate like HIV does, thus making it difficult for the human body to create antibodies (i.e. immunity). This may explain why news reports of Chinese medical staff are self-administering HIV therapy drugs. It also might shed light on why the lady in Japan had a relapse. If this is true, it's a bit concerning. Once infected (in theory), all you can do fight the symptoms until they stop. If one becomes symptiomatic again, the virus has a chance to infect another host. I would however, stop short of thinking this is some sort of airborne form of HIV, but it is something to think about based on the cloudy facts coming out of China.
Another interesting point, is the wide range of symptoms. Everything from a mild cold like experience to septic shock and organ failure. This article from
thescientist.com, touches on the relationship of COVID-19 to the ACE2, as does the SCMP article. Angiotensin-converting enzyme2 (ACE2) is something I don't fully understand, but is related to high blood pressure. I know, because at one point my doctor wanted me to take an ACE inhibitor. Fortunately my blood pressure got into control, and didn't need to take them. The SCMP article stated that ACE2 "does not exist in large quantities in healthy people". Might be worth researching what causes ACE2 to increase its "quantity".
www.livescience.com
