COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) — Viral researchers believe someone in central Ohio has been infected with COVID-19 for at least two years, and they want to find that person.
While the researchers believe there is no threat to public health, they hope this case holds much-needed answers to treating long COVID.
[...]
Johnson stressed that this is not a threat to public health, explaining that the virus is inactive once it passes through the gastrointestinal tract.
A spokesperson for the Ohio Department of Health said health officials are not fully convinced that the cryptic strain is linked to only one person, but they are not investigating it because it poses no threat to public health.
This is addressed in the twitter thread. It is believed that a gastrointestinal infection of COVID simply doesn't shed virus particles, except through excrement, and the GI tract does a good job of denaturing the viral proteins so that they are mostly inactive. That is probably why it hasn't spread. Yet.
But that says nothing about how infectious this strain would be, or how virulent if it were to be contracted as a respiratory infection. This could be the new Delta/Omicron, or worse. We could be one explosive diarrhea away from a new pandemic.
Currently it's not. So, currently no problem. If it changes, then it could be, yes. Which is true for any virus. If they change, they could potentially harm lots of people. That's life, and that's why we have the CDC and WHO etc. who keep an eye on things and try to react once that's needed. (Which lots of conspiracy theorists don't like, but that's life too.)
COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) — Viral researchers believe someone in central Ohio has been infected with COVID-19 for at least two years, and they want to find that person.
While the researchers believe there is no threat to public health, they hope this case holds much-needed answers to treating long COVID.
[...]
Johnson stressed that this is not a threat to public health, explaining that the virus is inactive once it passes through the gastrointestinal tract.
A spokesperson for the Ohio Department of Health said health officials are not fully convinced that the cryptic strain is linked to only one person, but they are not investigating it because it poses no threat to public health.