The Biology of SARS-CoV-2: Understanding COVID-19 Transmission

BIOL 3654-General Microbiology Module 3: Synthesis Activities Name:  Date: Instructions:  The Module 3 Synthesis Activities give you the opportunity to apply your knowledge to ‘real-world’ scenarios, practice critical thinking skills, etc. We will work on the synthesis activities together during the synchronous sessions, but you must submit your own assignment at the end of the module. See Canvas assignment for grading details. Please note that your responses below may be shared (anonymously) with other people for educational purposes.  Overview:  SARS-CoV-2 is a virus that has caused the largest global pandemic in recent history. The disease caused by this virus, COVID-19, has affected >240 million people worldwide. Each person infected with SARS-CoV-2 carries an estimated 1 billion to 100 billion viral particles during peak infection (Sender et al., 2021).  The synthesis activity content will explore the biology of the virus, including the structure of coronaviruses like SARS-CoV-2, how the virus infects humans and replicates, how the viruses evolve, methods used to detect active and past SARS-CoV-2 infections, and potential treatments. The concepts you’ll learn will help you better understand COVID-19 and coronaviruses, as well as other viruses and outbreaks in the past, present, and future. To get a broad overview of the virus and disease, review our course lecture content, watch the animation series Biology of SARS-CoV-2, read this review article by Hu et al., 2021, and read this Nature News Feature by Scudellari 2021 (with incredible animations).  For additional information (optional), you may watch some of the Ninja Nerd videos on COVID-19. There are some additional SARS-CoV-2 resources in Module 5 on Canvas if you’d like to explore more.  In the activity below, you will find many different primary literature articles that I used in preparing the questions. You do NOT need to read every article from start to finish! Instead, pull up the relevant papers and search for the specific content that you are looking for (e.g., Molnupiravir). As always, reach out to the LAs and I if you would like help finding information, pulling out key content from the cited resources, etc. Questions:  Infection: Answer the question “How is COVID-19 spread from person to person?” as if you were explaining it to someone with little to no science background (e.g., your grandpa/mom/cousin/etc.).  COVID-19 is spread from person to person in several different ways including coughing, sneezing, breathing, and through saliva. This virus is spread through these methods since there are respiratory droplets, or droplets of saliva or mucus. People that are in close contact with one another are often the ones who spread the virus to each other. People who also in direct contact with one another also often spread the virus to each other. There may also be some instances when the virus may spread within crowds of people who are indoors since there is poor air ventilation and these respiratory droplets can be spread through a number of people. When these droplets are spread from an infected person to a non-infected person, the virus will enter the system of the non-infected individual and manifest into the