Viru, the Unstoppable

Let me call this virus by a name: Viru in memory of that unpredictable yet unstoppable dashing opener.

( a story of the duel between SARS CoV 2 and my bodyguards)

Here’s Viru’s innings described in a lay man’s terms:

Viru can enter us only through our nose. ( mouth and eyes also.) But it cannot pierce our skin and enter into our bloodstream.

Once gained entry, it most likely will remain in your nasopharynx only. (85% cases). We take sample from this site for testing. You may be positive but you will remain asymptomatic.

So Viru has landed but is busy taking guard.

Next it will slip further down into your throat. You will have a mild sore throat, cough ony. ( another 5%.) Chances are that Viru may be bowled out at this stage and return to pavilion scoring a duck. That would be the most welcome event.

But Viru Sehwag is Viru Sehwag.The sooner we see his back the better for us. Because once he gets going, there is no stopping.

Next he will slide down and settle down in our Lung:

Once Viru’s eyes are set, his feets are dug into your lungs, you have lost the game. Lung is his home turf and a double or triple ton is coming. Here, the Lung radiology will reveal those tell tale signs of Covid Pneumonia ( Corad V). May be your nasal sample test will be negative by now. That is when the patient slips away from human control. Some of them may have crossed the point of no return. We simply don’t know who are they?

We don’t have any red herrings to lead us to the onward course of Viru. Some people will try to contain the bat of Viru with their fantastic fieldsmen. We do have our own Jonty Rhodes like deadly fielders, the interleukins, T cells, NK cells and Killer cells. But once Viru gets going, no hands have been made to stop him. It’s his powerplay overs.

In some, this duel can be a trifle over enthusiastic, damaging their own lung in the process. This is called the cytokine storm. Now its a do or die situation for us. Unfortunately, here our fielders make a lot of unforced errors. In order to run Viru out, they make a lot of overthrow. In the process they contribute those extra runs that only helps Viru in its scourge.

We still don’t know who of those covid pneumonia cases will turn around, and who won’t. Because treatment onwards is arbitrary. All fingers crossed.

Truth be told, all those webinars, guidelines regarding treatment protocol that are streaming online are what they are in reality – mere hypotheses.
Only Time will reveal the truth.

( fictious. Name is coined for a comparison only)