5 ms·

I am impressed how fast Chinese scientists developed a genetic test distinguish 2019-coronavirus from other kinds of pneumonia. I am old enough to remember biol

• chrisco255 7y ago
  I'm not surprised. The Wuhan virology center was studying viruses just like this and probably found this virus years ago.
  • caycep 7y ago
    Granted - this is a Hong Kong U paper...
• bsder 7y ago
  > I am old enough to remember biologists flailing around for 4 years to identify the HIV virus and two years more for slow (two week) test. HIV is rather fragile, no? It only spreads in specific bodily fluids and shows very little viral load when dormant. 2019-nCoV spreads in air. That's a significantly hardier virus that produces quite a lot of virus particles that are way easier to detect. In addition, please remember that molecular biology was just getting started when the AIDS epidemic hit. AIDS (1981) predates PCR (1983). Molecular biology and computing have come a long way in 40 years, and we have a lot more tools at our disposal nowadays.
• Pfhreak 7y ago
  > I am old enough to remember biologists flailing around for 4 years to identify the HIV virus and two years more for slow (two week) test. I suspect that part of this comes from the fact that people thought the disease was thought to target gay men. In fact, AIDS was originally called GRID -- Gay-Related Immune Deficiency. There was plenty of (truly awful) folks out there who felt that it was some sort of cosmic justice.
• crusty 7y ago
  Not all fruits hang the same. Some hang low, some don't, and the tools we use to pick them change as we try.