Russian virologist compared coronavirus and Ebola with a mermaid and a horse

Virologist Semyonov: coronavirus with Ebola, like a mermaid with a horse, cannot connect

In Yekaterinburg, Doctor of Biological Sciences Alexander Semenov in an interview with RIA Novosti, assessing the chances of combining coronavirus with Ebola, compared them with a mermaid and a horse.

According to the virologist, the idea that the two viruses can connect is “something from the realm of cheap Hollywood fiction”, since the coronavirus and Ebola have different genetic structures. “The coronavirus variant – neither omicron, nor alpha, nor delta, nor theta, nor any other future – cannot connect with the Ebola virus in the same way as a mermaid with a horse cannot give fruitful offspring, because they are arranged differently,” – Semenov said.

The biologist explained that the Ebola virus particles are like a hot dog with a long sausage in which genetic information is recorded, and the SARS-CoV-2 particles are like a hairy ball, and they cannot connect with each other.

At the same time, according to Semenov, a person can get sick simultaneously with a coronavirus infection and Ebola. The outcome in this case is impossible to predict, but, most likely, the outcome will be extremely unfavorable, he admitted. As an example, he cited cases when people with hepatitis C can also get sick with HIV, but these are different diseases caused by two different pathogens.

Earlier, the head of the World Medical Association (WMA) Frank Ulrich Montgomery compared the danger of a new strain of coronavirus with Ebola. According to him, initially, humanity underestimated the danger of coronavirus and compared it with the flu. Many believed that it would be possible to achieve herd immunity, but then the delta strain appeared.

Later, Doctor of Biological Sciences Ancha Baranova urged not to compare the new omicron strain of coronavirus with Ebola. “Yes, we have not yet seen how the virus manifests itself in the elderly, but this is not Ebola,” she said.

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