The Devilish Details of Viruses - Book Review

 

Viruses, Pandemics, and Immunity (VP&I hereafter) by Arup K. Chakraborty and Andrew S. Shaw opens with a brief history of pandemics. Discounting the spiritual dimension of plagues at the outset only indicates the authors do not wish to address final causes (in the Aristotelean sense) but focus instead on material causes.

History is replete with viral epidemics and pandemics that all of us have heard of, such as smallpox. Smallpox has been almost eradicated in the world. But what of polio, HIV? And what about outbreaks that occur locally but do not become epidemic? The explanation is found in the microscopic domain of viruses and the human response to them.

VP&I explains what viruses consist of, and how they work. They invade the body’s own cells (since they are not cells themselves) by injecting themselves into the cells, and then use the victim cell’s machinery to reproduce themselves. That RNA viruses are hard to contain because of their genetic variability resulting in mutations, unlike DNA viruses with their more stable genetic code. Next, VP&I explains how the immune response defends us from them. Although we often get sick, this is how our natural bodily response fends off the initial attack and then remembers the defenses. Immunity thus naturally obtained may last for months, years, or a lifetime.

The spread of pandemics and  control of them is the hot topic du jour of the day. Public health practices like distancing, masking, washing, quarantining and the like mitigate virus transmission, but how well? VP&I explains the concept of R₀, which is a parameter that measures how many others a sick person will infect during the course of their illness. And then the difficult task of estimating the effect of various public health measures on reducing it. The authors explain how so-called herd immunity depends crucially on R₀. 

There are antiviral therapies that hospitals typically use when a patient is admitted, but vaccines are the current high interest item. The details of how conventional vaccines work and the novelty of the mRNA vaccines is explained, although this book was published just before the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines were in mass distribution.  The history of  polio vaccines (Salk and Sabin) and the pursuit of an HIV vaccine offers some insight into previous generations’ responses, and the difficulties in developing them.

Overall, the level of detail in VP&I that is accessible to non-medical personnel is very helpful in understanding what is going on. The unknowns ought to give us pause whenever politicians (including “medical” bureaucrats) make pronouncements with an air of certainty, because of uncertain and unknown details.  But government leaders are in a hard spot, being charged with responsibility for the public welfare, to the extent that government can promote it, without knowledge needed to make wise decisions. 

VP&I provides details, but not the context, and does not attempt to address the social and political turmoil ensuing from the COVID-19 pandemic. We are commanded to submit to governing authorities, which were established by God, as God’s servants for good.

Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. Consequently, whoever rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves. For rulers hold no terror for those who do right, but for those who do wrong. Do you want to be free from fear of the one in authority? Then do what is right and you will be commended. For the one in authority is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for rulers do not bear the sword for no reason. They are God’s servants, agents of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer. Therefore, it is necessary to submit to the authorities, not only because of possible punishment but also as a matter of conscience. (Romans 13:1-5, NIV)

Fortunately, we do not (in this country) have a regime anything like the Third Reich, to which reconciling this passage would be difficult. It would be healthy if those claiming infallible public health prescriptions would back off from their claim of certainty, but this should be balanced against claims of those who purport to speak for God. There are varying interpretations of Scripture (just as there are complications in nanobiology) and we should be cautious to avoid claiming the authority of Scripture for our interpretation of them. God will, in His time, judge those who rebel against Him,  and those who misuse authority. We should be humble and cautious lest we be so judged.