Covid-19: Zoonotic or Bioterrorism (Research Paper Sample)

COVID-19: ZOONOTIC OR BIOTERRORISM
Maureen Makena Kiganka
HSB331-1620/2021
Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology
MLS 3130
Disease Surveillance and Outbreak Investigation
Masters in Medical Laboratory Science in Clinical Histopathology and Diagnostic Cytology
Prof Joseph Gikunju
3rd December 2021
Introduction
The origin of COVID-19 has been shrouded with mystery ever since the disease was discovered in twenty nineteen. Both medically-trained practitioners and the public have had compelling arguments supporting theory claims to the origin of the disease. Before getting to the arguments, some details that should be explained is the definition given to Coronaviruses. Coronaviruses are classified in the Coronaviridae family and are enveloped, positive sensed, single-stranded RNA viruses. Among health practitioners, the two main theories that exist are based on the origin of the disease. The two theories are zoonotic and bioterrorism. The main reason to write this paper is to define zoonotic and bioterrorism and figure out which of the two is the most scientific support proving that it’s the reason COVID-19 developed.
Discussion
The first theory is zoonotic. Zoonotic means that the condition or disease in question developed after being transmitted from various animals to a human host before spreading to other people. The main argument supporting zoonotic as the origin of COVID-19 is that after the condition developed in Wuhan, the research identified that bats caused the condition. According to World Health Organization, the seven coronaviruses that already exists affecting human beings have been traced back to animals as the source (Ye et al., 2020). Some of the animals identified as the source include bats, mice, and other domestic animals people keep as pets or for financial benefits. The viruses mutate and adapt to the hosts. The two main and most recent HCoVs known to man are Middle East Respiratory Syndrome(MERS) and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome(SARS), with both of them having animals as their origin. As a result of protein sequence in coronaviruses, they are divided into four main classes; alpha-CoV, beta-CoV, gamma-CoV and delta-CoV. Among the four classes, most HCoVs are classified as beta-CoV. Research shows that bats and rodents are the gene source for alpha and beta CoVs. Therefore, the main argument for zoonotic is that COVID-19 was transmitted from animals, thus proving the condition to be zoonotic.
The second theory to the origin of COVID-19 is bioterrorism. Bioterrorism is defined as a country or organization releasing a medical pathogen to the targeted location with ill intentions to cause diseases or death or make profits to offer treatment for the condition. Some of the main targets include human beings, crops and livestock to either cause economic or medical challenges for the targeted location. Bioterrorism is thus identified as using pathogens to pose risks to the national security of several countries. Bioterrorism is divided into three main categories, A, B and C (Janik et al., 2019). Each category is meant to show the priority, a risk to national security and ease to disseminate. COVID-19 lies in category A. the category includes conditions with the highest priority, most national security risk, conditions easily disseminated, cause panic, and social and economic disruption. Conditions in this category also require specialized actions to handl