Rasmussens fascination with viruses began in the fifth grade, when she contracted pneumonia and was left with chronic asthma. I was very interested in how these tiny things that you cant even see cause such severe disease, she says. How can something invisible make you so sick and cause you long-lasting problems?

Rasmussens research explores how a host responds to a virus. Given that all viruses have to infect a host, viruses are obligate parasites, she says. Its always relevant to know how the host is responding as well as how the virus itself workswhat kinds of host responses and what kind of genes are expressed in response to infection over time.

As an expert, Rasmussen, who is currently an associate research scientist at Columbia Universitys Mailman School of Public Health, advocates for all the common sense and scientifically based practices for combating a pandemic, including social distancing and wearing masks. Here she talks about some of the things weve learned about COVID-19 since it emerged, her concerns about rushing a vaccine and how the pandemic has brought to light issues of equity.

Virology 101Viruses cant exist on their own; they have to have a host. Thats why theres a big philosophical debate about whether viruses are alive or not. They cant replicate independently. They cant reproduce themselves without infecting a host cell. I think of viruses more as machines. People have a real tendency to anthropomorphize them, talk about what a virus wants to do or what a virus thinks. Viruses are really just a set of instructions to make more viruses. Its sort of incidental whether or not they actually cause disease. Since a virus is under evolutionary pressure to reproduce itself, a really effective virus would be one that doesnt affect its host at all, so it can fly under the radar and just replicate efficiently.

Viruses Are Here to StayI dont think viruses are going anywhere. And they are an important part of the ecosystem, too. Viruses drive evolution of their host. They may not even be infectious anymore, capable of producing viruses or causing disease, but they can drive the way that we evolve, and they have driven evolution across millennia.

>

Unexpected Effects of SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19One of the things that I think is surprising to a lot of people is this virus doesnt just cause pneumonia; it doesnt just cause respiratory disease. There are indications that it affects other parts of the body. There have been reports of kidney and liver disease. It may damage the beta islet cells of the pancreas that produce insulin and may predispose people to diabetes, which may explain why people with diabetes have a different risk factor for severe COVID-19. There are reports of weird clotting abnormalities and cardiac effects and neurological things like the loss of sense of smell or taste.

Current Treatment Protocol: Everything and the Kitchen SinkPeople are screening compounds that are not approved drugs, or havent been used for anything, to see if we can find new compounds that might be effective, mostly as antivirals. There are other drugs being studied that treat the patients immune and inflammatory responses that are out of control, which is associated with the most severe cases. Some of those are also in trials right now to see if they can help patients with the most severe disease. In many cases, if doctors have a patient whos on a vent, they throw the kitchen sink at them. They treat them with everything they can think of that might be safe. So, I think were going to see a lot of observational data like that: We used this to treat X number of patients, and they got better. From there, people will start doing randomized, controlled clinical trials.

The Potential Consequences of Rushing a VaccineMy biggest concerns are that we might approve a vaccine thats not effective. Theres only so much you can do to hurry the process along. People have talked about ways to speed this up, like doing human challenge trials, which I dont think is a very good idea because this is a deadly virus and we dont know what the long-term sequelae of being infected are. So, I think it would be almost impossible for people to actually give informed consent to participate in a human challenge trial like that. The other thing is that you wouldnt be getting data about how the vaccine works in the most vulnerable people. Older people or people with preexisting conditions that we know are risk factors would be excluded from a human challenge trial like that, so we wouldnt know if, say, the vaccine is less effective in those people.

The Socio-Political Fallout of COVID-19What I hope comes out of all of this is increased equitygender equity, equity for LGBTQ+ people, racial equity and religious equity. Thats easier said than done. This pandemic has made clear, at least as far as gender is concerned, that there are still very gendered responsibilities in our society. Many people are working from home, for example. Women tend to take on more of the housework and responsibilities for caring for others in their household. As a result, women have been disproportionately affected by that. In science, weve seen that women are submitting fewer papers. Theyre submitting fewer grant applications. To my knowledge, there isnt really a policy level plan to address this. One thing that Ive experienced both in my work and on the National Institutes of Health advisory committee to the Working Group on Changing the Culture to End Sexual Harassment is that its a challenge to even convince people theres a problem. Many menand some womenwill say, Im for equity. Im not racist. Im not sexist, but that doesnt change the fact that they arent actively doing anything against it. Thats what the Shut Down STEM movement and the Black Lives Matter protests have really drawn to peoples attentionthat its not enough to just not be racist or not be sexist or not be homophobic or transphobic. You have to actively be against those things.

See more here:
Angela Rasmussen '00: Getting to the Heart of COVID-19 - Smith College Grcourt Gate

Comments are closed.