Is SARS Virus
an Alien Visitor from Another World?
(This article
was originally written in 2003, deleted and reposted on Thursday, 16 December
2021)
This essay is
reproduced here during the current (2020) Covid-19 pandemic since the story is
the same in the eyes of this author.
Another
similar 40 pages (10,838 words) abridged essay, titled:
“2020:
War of the Worlds: Earthlings vs. the Corona Virus” among
the list was posted in Ir. Lau Tai Onn blog here:
https://taionn.blogspot.com/search?q=list+of+lim+ju+boo+articles
The above
abridged link was condensed from the author’s original 78,685 words
dissertation under the same title.
-------------------
Dear
friends and all,
Thank
you so much for all your hundreds of letters (received in 2003).
Thank
you to Ir. Tan Seng Khoo, Simon Chow, Professor Dr. SH Goh, Dr MT Cheng,
Ms. June Lai, Dr. Janet See, Mr. Ismail, Dr. May Wei, Dr. Amir Farik Ishak, Mr.
Vellu (or was it Vaidoo?), and many more who have written to me to ask.
Thank
you so much. I have read your versions about SARS and its connection with Sadam
Hussein’s biological weapons, about God, about epidemics, about pigs and eating
pork, about Jesus Christ, about Bush and Tony Blair, about future predictions,
about astrology, about the Bible and the animals, about fasting, about Ir. Tan
Seng Khoo’s cinema release of his new movies which he directed himself in Chow
Kit, and Old Klang Roads, and all your various thoughts and associations with
this outbreak of SARS.
I am
really quite confused by all your ideas. Your mails are too plentiful, and very
amusing, but it is not possible to reply, except to thank you all for your
great and funny ideas.
In reply
to all your different theories and questions put to me about this SARS epidemic
let me share with you my own hypothesis.
Current
Theory:
I am
taking a further step away from my original thinking that the suspect atypical
pneumonia coronavirus which currently affects humans was a zoonotic disease,
had jumped the species barrier from animals to humans.
That original
thought was based on the fact that most strains of coronavirus (CoV) affect
mainly animals damaging their respiratory and alimentary systems, including the
liver (hepatitis). In pigs, according to the literature, coronavirus affects
only their digestive system causing gastroenteritis, but not their respiratory
system as seen in birds. We think that a new strain of Covid is now affecting
the respiratory system in humans.
First
isolated in 1937, the coronaviruses have always been an avian (bird) virus,
affecting chicken causing infectious bronchitis. Since then, it started to
infect other systems in a lot of other animals – cattle, horses, pigs, turkey,
dogs, cats, rats, and mice. A few strains responsible for most of the common
colds in humans were isolated in the 1960’s from the nasal cavities of patients
with common colds. In fact they were responsible for about 30 % of the common
colds in humans after the rhinoviruses.
Currently
it is believed that some members of this CoV which previously affected mainly
animals could have mutated in such a way that it could now jump the
animal-human barrier to present an entirely new feature in human respiratory
disease.
Lessons
Taught in RNA-based Virology:
In my
original letter as a reply to the late Ms. Tan Cheng Sim’s letter, I thought
this hypothesis could be the most probable aetiological (causative)
explanation. It originated in the Guangdong Province of South China and Hong
Kong where living conditions were crowded in flats, and where the Chinese keep
their ducks, hens, goose, rabbits, birds, snakes, goats, pigs, cats and dogs as
part of their ‘family members’.
This closely
knitted ‘nucleated family’ structure between animals and humans could have made
a break in the species barrier pathogenesis. After all, scientists have all
along believed it needs only some structural changes in the RNA configuration
on the virus during the mutation process to lock onto the receptor cells of
humans.
The
structure of the coronavirus genome is a single strand, unlike the double helix
DNA strand in higher organisms. Its genome has over 30,000 nucleotides (about
32 kilo base long on a single strand of RNA), and is probably the largest RNA
virus genome.
We know
this using an analytical technique in molecular genetics called Polymerase
Chain Reaction (PCR) to determine short sequences of RNA / DNA without the need
to clone it. It was one technique I remember learning during my training in
medical biotechnology a few years ago.
I
remember in our practical class we used restriction enzymes (DNA-cutting
enzymes) to cut off the DNA at a particular sequence of the nucleotides, making
templates for copying, and joining them again using DNA ligases to produce
different sorts of recombinant DNA (rDNA) later.
I also
remember Southern blotting where we use blood samples to sequence segments of
the DNA using probes. I remember it took us at least two days to sequence just
a small segment of the DNA. I remember using an ultra-centrifuge to spin down a
sample overnight.
It was very
slow and tedious those days, probably they were old methods. These days
sequencing is very much faster using such technology like the Sanger
sequencing. It is used for accuracy, which is also timesaving for long lengths
of DNA, inexpensive, and is able to detect insertions and deletions such as in
mutation.
It was one
heck of biotechnology and molecular biology that some 15 of us - doctors and
medical researchers and scientists selected from ASEAN countries for their
Regional ASEAN training program where we learn from a team of French experts
which was held at the Institute for Medical Research in Malaysia (IMR).
It was our 3
month-long Regional In-Service Postgraduate Training some years ago. Besides
biotechnology, medical statistics was another area taught to some 60 doctors
and medical scientists from ASEAN countries during a separate program as part
of our postgraduate training in Epidemiology and Tropical Diseases some years
later that was also held at the IMR.
One of
the things we gained learning biotechnology was PCR analysis, and
its applications in our understanding in genome sequencing including sequencing
the genomic make-up of viruses.
On SARS virus
these groups of viruses are unusual in the sense they have the highest
frequency of recombination of any positive strand RNA virus, meaning that it
has the highest ability of combining genetic information from other sources.
This makes them capable of mutating into other forms. So far so
good, so the virologists believe.
But how
do viruses attack in general? The mechanisms vary from virus to virus. In HIV
for instance, the RNA of HIV attacks the immune bodies such as the lymphocytes,
monocytes etc., and gain entry into the body through receptor sites. Once the
virus enters the human cell, it duplicates itself by a mechanism called reverse
transcription through the help of reverse transcription enzyme (nucleoside
reverse transcription). This changes the viral RNA into DNA to mimic the DNA
profile of the host cells.
This coy
cheat the body cells into integration and acceptance of the virus. By a process
called translation (reading) of messenger RNA (mRNA), the end result is a
cascade of intracellular events that cause the virus to multiply rapidly inside
the cell until it dies.
In the
SARS case, the coronavirus probably (I believe, but I am uncertain), attacks
the cells in the lung parenchyma – lung tissues that are responsible for gasses
exchange and respiratory functions. Lungs cells involved could probably be the
CD8+ve cells, the poorly differentiated cells, ciliated cells, mucous cells,
Clara-like cells, and the typical basal cells. Probably the tracheal tissues
may also be involved.
The
mechanism of attack and multiplication is probably similar to most other viral infection.
This sequence of events in viral infection and transmission is not something
new to most of us although the mechanisms in viral pathogenesis may not be an
exact mirror image for every viral infection.
Viral
Transmission and Pathogenesis:
Given
our current understanding on the dynamics of transmission, any route of
invasion is possible, at least theoretically. It is a matter how the virus
transcribes itself directionally to find its way from host-to-host, viz.
animals-to-animals, animals-to-humans, and humans-to-humans. Transgenic
mutation is real, and it can occur naturally as the result of environment
changes, radiation, and exposure to mutagenic chemicals, including being
challenged by the immunoglobulin (antibodies) of the host. It can even be
manipulated artificially. In fact, genetic engineering is the basis of
biotechnology for better hybrids of plants and animals.
Given the
possibility that SARS coronavirus is a mutant of a previously existing family
of coronaviruses, one very crucial question remains unanswered. That is, where
did the first coronavirus on Earth come into existence? Scientists have been
running hither and thither with theories trying to find out where the first
virus originated. Were these groups of corona viruses merely mutant forms of
one another, or were they actually new separate viruses as separate entities
coming from somewhere else outside this planet?
In short, do
all the existing viruses mutate into new ones, or were the new ones actually
brought here from another world?
Is it either
this, or they were actually some mutant CoV that managed to cross the animal
barrier to infect humans? Did it actually jump the species barrier, or could it
already exist in humans in a less variant form, considering that this atypical
pneumonia virus exhibits pathogenic features quite differently from the rest of
the Coronavirus family?
As far as we
know, the common cold coronavirus strain, and other rhinoviruses underwent
mutation periodically, so virologists believe. Because of these rapid
variations in mutagenic directions, no specific vaccine, or even poly-vaccines
against all viruses can be formulated.
Mutation
and Immunological Defences:
The next
question we need to address is why did these viruses undergo mutation?
Virologists will tell us they need to change in order to survive because of
harsher environmental changes, mimicking a small-scale evolution perhaps? But
is this entirely true?
Couldn’t they
have survived happily without undergoing RNA structural transformations since
there are hundreds of billions of hosts (animals and man) on earth upon which
their RNA can be transcribed and copied again and again in the unlimited supply
of hosts? Are they suddenly so defenceless against us when we have not had even
an iota of chance acquiring any specific antibodies against them?
If not, why
then did they change or evolve into a new strain or species as scientists have
until now believe. Wouldn’t an alternative explanation be more probable, in
that the new virus did not actually evolve from an older strain, but was
actually an entirely new form of life that came down on us from outside this
planet? In short, the current SARS virus has absolutely no ‘blood relationship’
with the rest of the family of CoV perhaps yet to emerge?
This is
the question we want to challenge our learned and elite scientific and medical
colleagues to answer. Identifying a new virus is already a very daunting
scientific task but is not impossible. One method we have already explained is
to study its genome sequencing, and the length of its bases (A,T,G, C
nucleotide) chain through PCR analysis. But attempting to prove with certainty
that it evolved from some existing known strain is even more intimidating.
The
author's original thought that SARS may be zoonotic in origin could be dead
wrong, and this letter will give me a chance to retrieve that hypothesis. After
all, we were only picking up the bits and pieces here and there from our
current understanding in virology. We merely followed the belief of the rest of
the scientific community. Initially, I too went along with them.
Current
hypothesis of virologists that a similar large base CoV virus underwent some
structural changes in their RNA (ribonucleic acid), perhaps in the sequencing
and the translocation of their nucleotides to generate this new strain may be
quite wrong. But now I strongly believe I was wrong too if I follow their trend
of thinking.
So, we
think that new strains from existing ones evolved because of unfavourable
environmental changes that threaten their existence? We also think that these
changes put new challenges and surprises on our immunological surveillance.
When our immunological status becomes compromised, they attack.
Once
suitable and specific antibodies – immunoglobulin like IgA, IgD, IgE, IgG and
IgM are produced naturally by the body to combat the antigen (the virus), the
virus no longer has a hold. They just go away, or they may mutate into another
form. They may re-establish their invasion in the body in another form to
survive.
In
short, this would be a logical sequence in evolution. This scenario explained
here in the simplest way we could possibly illustrate, is a theory that is
quite well accepted by the scientific / medical community. But…. is this true?
It was something that we, as students studied years ago, taught in the elite
schools of immunology, virology, medicine and biomedical sciences.
Creation
or Evolution:
Looking back,
that was what medical and biomedical students were taught in classical
microbiology. That was history. But now we need not follow the teachings of our
learned university professors, but to have a mind of our own to think
analytically and independently. Three very haunting questions therefore we
would like to ask members of the scientific community.
Firstly,
where did the first RNA fragment surface on Earth? Was it created by God or was
it evolved out of emptiness?
Secondly,
how terribly sure are we that this new virus was actually an extension or
evolved from another virus through the process of mutation?
Thirdly,
what evidence do we have that SARS viruses were transmitted from animals to
generate this new disease? Can any of us out there be able to answer with the
appropriate findings in the literature?
Does this line
of thought conform to evidence-based virology or evidence-based medicine? Could
we challenge the scientific community who may come up with the hypothesis that
a member of the CoV self-orchestrated its own genetic engineering to confront
the animal- human hosts with this new threat?
In
hindsight, I am more inclined to believe that this new viral emergence had
never originated from this Earth before. They probably came from another world
to this Planet Earth as an Alien
Dark
clouds of comets from outer space periodically bathe the Earth with cosmic dust
as they pass by in the neighbourhood of the Sun and Earth. These gigantic
‘dirty snowballs’ as comets are described, have been seeding Earth with complex
life-giving organic compounds each time Earth intercepts the trails of dust
left behind by a passing comet. Both execute an orbit around the Sun, and at
some point, Earth would intersect the path left by a passing comet.
Sometimes,
comets would plunge straight into the Sun, never to come up anymore. Most would
pass round and round the Sun, and each time it comes near the Sun, the heat and
radiation from the Sun would ‘boil off’ the ‘dirty snowball’ to leave a trail
of comet’s debris in its wake. Even without the comets, astronomers already
know that hundreds of millions and micrometeorites (about 300 million of them)
pepper the Earth’s atmosphere every day.
Dozens
of larger meteorites fall directly onto the Earth’s surface daily. All told,
some 1000 metric tons of cosmic debris rained down on Earth everyday even
without a single comet seen in Earth’s neighbourhood. This figure rises tens of
hundreds of times when the Earth orbits (passes) through the tail of a passing
comet.
In ancient
times, all civilizations viewed Comets as a harbinger of bad omen, plagues,
disease and Black Death! Where did all the ancient civilizations get all that
information and wisdom from? They seemed to know better. May we request doctors
and scientists to look upwards above them towards heavens?
New
alien life forms have been falling on our heads without us realizing them. They
fall not only on our heads, but on our roof-tops, over our gardens, on our
neighbour’s fences and doorsteps, our sheep, cows, ducks, goats, pigs, chicken,
goose, dogs and cats.
We have all
along been looking sideways with myopic eyes, and an introverted mind, blaming
on our poor animals, and on one another, including our neighbour’s unkempt
gardens, the food we eat or don’t eat, etc. Like a gardener or a farmer who
scatters numerous seeds on the ground, some will take root and bear fruits,
others will just lie there, barren forever.
Some of
these alien RNA, viruses, infectious prion (half a life, half inanimate
atypical proteinaceous virus-like particles) have been raining all over us
daily without us being aware of it. We didn’t look up, but always sideways at
our ducks and geese, and suspiciously at another human fellow, or downwards at
our soil for the origin of these new ‘mutant variants of viruses’.
These
viruses may have been mutating very fast as virologists claimed, but they
mutate only once they reach earth. They may have remained deeply frozen in the
frigid and darkness of outer space, perhaps for hundreds of thousand, or
millions of years before they arrive on Earth to mutate and multiply.
An Alien
Invasion:
We blame
aircrafts and rapid air travel for spreading infectious diseases from one
country to another, like someone scattering those seeds on the soil as they
travel along. Would it be more reasonable, applying the same scientific logic,
that a much, much bigger, and much more efficient spacecraft, called a Comet,
has been doing exactly the same job?
These
natural spacecrafts carry thousands of millions of tons of hibernating
‘biological passengers’ - these new biological fragments of life and viruses
from another world to pepper down on our Earth, over our heads every day.
Look
upwards, and not sideways or down your feet where the mud is, my dear doctors
and research scientists! It’s coming from up there, not sideways from our
neighbour’s fences, or from our poultry’s pens. Naturally, once they infect a
person, the viruses will quickly spread on to the next nearest person in
contact. But none of the patients simply got it out of nothing. Nothing begets
nothing!
Did
our dear and learned virologists think of this mode of transmission? There is
absolutely no point studying these viruses in detail under an electron microscope
or sequencing their genome using PCR analysis or Southern Block technique (to
separate the DNA fragments by Gel Electrophoresis). There are now far better
and much faster sequencing techniques such as the Sanger sequencing
technique available to us.
Virologists
and health authorities waste a lot of their time doing this. It is exactly and
precisely like a motorist getting out of his car to open his car bonnet and
study how his car engine works in a massive traffic jam in his futile attempt
to explain what causes that massive jam, or in his attempt to prevent that
massive jam.
What
relationship has his car engine got to do with that jam? That motorist would
have done a lot, lot better had he taken a helicopter up and had a bird’s eye
view of the whole situation, and to study where that bottleneck is instead of
looking at his car engine for the cause or a solution. How idiotic!
My dear
colleagues in science and medicine, I think should we look at the whole problem
with a bird’s eye view (holistically), and not using our electron microscope to
study the problem even much smaller until all we see are just clusters or
strands of molecules. Shouldn’t we look at them on a much larger mega-scale?
The heavens are bizarrely huge, and this tiny, tiny Earth is like a subatomic
particle lost in a mighty, mighty, mighty cosmic ocean. Wouldn’t that be in the
right direction?
As it
is, virologists are trying to solve a problem by looking at the nucleotides of
the virus. The problem with us in the scientific community is that we tend to
specialize far too much, such that we lose sight of the surrounding
environment, specializing looking just at the molecules and atoms.
With narrower
and narrower specialization, our views become more and more clouded, and our
eyes become more and more myopic (short-sighted). We begin to lose touch with
the reality of the entire whole picture. How does examining the molecular
details of the SARS virus help us in prevention and treatment when the dust is
all falling all over on our heads from above? I am very aware and prepared for
what the virologists will reply to me.
They
will sharply reply by saying that by looking at the molecular configurations,
and identifying the virus, it will help clinicians diagnose SARS and separate
it from other pneumonia-like respiratory diseases. Diagnose, yes.
In
medicine this is called ‘differential diagnosis’ Next, they will reply by
claiming that they will be able to develop a vaccine for SARS. They
call this a treatment (cure) or a prophylaxis (prevention) perhaps?
We are aware
theoretically, by studying the structure of the viral RNA, and the mechanisms
by which they invade the body, we can design a drug that can block that
mechanism, the receptor site of the cells perhaps? Alternatively, we may try
identifying the viral E protein (gene) that may be responsible for viral
RNA/DNA transcription and replication, and pharmacological ways of damaging /
blocking that synthesis?
So far
so good, at least this is what we understand from our theoretical classical
knowledge. But what happens if the virus starts to mutate and change their
molecular configurations? In that case, neither an (antiviral) drug, nor any
vaccine will work, as it took the blocking (locking) mechanisms of! f gear. So
our treatment protocol and our vaccination will still come to naught – wasted
efforts, I may add.
Myopic Sight
and Vaccination:
Microbiologists
(virologists, bacteriologist’s mycologists, protozoa parasitologists) and
pharmacologists have been explaining the pharmacodynamics and mode of action of
drugs against microbial invasions to us all these years. Despite all those pharmacology
and microbiology lectures, did we manage to stop HIV, hepatitis, or even just
the simple common cold, and now SARS from spreading? We credit the eradication
of smallpox and poliomyelitis to the vaccines, but many quarters have already
questioned the validity of this claim.
They believe
that both smallpox and poliomyelitis died a natural death after some time, with
or without vaccines, and I personally also believe in what they called it as
“herd immunity” or shared or transferred immunity as I would like to coin it.
In some
measure we might have some successes with Diphtheria, Tetanus and Pertussis
(whooping cough), H. Influenza, Polio (with Salk injectable or Sabin oral),
Rotavirus in children’s diarrhoea and gastroenteritis and against Measles,
Mumps and Rubella (German measles) and against Varicella (chicken pox). Yes / no?
This issue is very debatable even among health providers, and we shall not go
into that.
Smallpox
vaccination is perhaps the most successful campaign against the variola
(smallpox) virus and WHO declared smallpox eradicated in 1980 after intensive
vaccination started in 1961 with the last case recorded in Somalia in 1977. It
broke out again in 1978 after a small laboratory accident in Birmingham.
Some medical
opponents are against vaccinations, and they have even spoken out against the
value of vaccination. They publish data, findings and opinion in the Lancet and
medical journals questioning the value of such prophylactic measures.
They
also question the safety of these vaccinations, quoting the authoritative CDC (Centres
for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta) study in 1977 that 11,365
vaccine adverse effects were recorded, compared to 7,535 cases of benefits from
vaccine-preventable-disease (documented by CDC).
It is rumoured
that because of safety and questionable benefits, even the former British Prime
Minister, Tony Blair did not allow his children to be vaccinated? Because of
some of these findings and publications, there is now a growing group in the
medical circle against unnecessary vaccination, supported by a number of
lawsuits by members of the public in America, Britain and Europe caught up in
this controversy. The Spanish flu and great influenza which swept across Europe
and America killing two million people in 1918 as an example died a natural
death without the help of vaccines.
A lot of
people are now questioning the benefits of vaccination, when other modalities
such as good nutrition, proper housing, clean water supply, clean air, and
clean environment and other measures would have done the same job? Without
these realities of proper and healthy living, giving vaccination to solve a
health problem is like sweeping dirt under a carpet to cover up reality (so
that it! looks ‘healthy’ on the front). But we shall not go into all these
debates as we can write chapters without end on this issue. This is not the
topic of our discussion.
Diseases and
Plagues in the Bible:
Plagues,
pestilence, famine, disease and pandemic are not just realities we experience
in science.
It is not what
science tells us, but what even the Bible tells us that these pandemics will
occasionally plague this world.
Even in the
beginning during Moses’ time there were already a number of plagues over the
land of ancient Egypt. They were, water turning into blood (Ex. 7:14–240),
frogs everywhere (Ex. 7:25–8:11/15), lice or gnats (Ex. 8:12–15/8:16–19),
wild animals or flies (Ex. 8:16–28/8:20–32), pestilence of livestock (Ex.
9:1–7), boils (Ex. 9:8–12), locusts (Ex. 10:1–20), darkness for three days
(Ex. 10:21–29), death of firstborn (Ex. 11:1–12:3.
In Lev.
26:25, when Israel falls into covenant violations, God says, “I will send
pestilence among you.” In II Chronicles 6:28, Solomon spoke of pestilence,
famine or blight.
In II
Chron. 7:13, God says that if he sends pestilence, the people can pray and
humble themselves (v. 14). In II Sam. 24:15, God sends a pestilence that kills
70,000 Israelites because of David’s ill-conceived census.
Jesus
says in Luke 21:11 that there will be plagues. Both Ezekiel and Jeremiah
speak of God sending down plagues as in Ezek. 14:21 and 33:27, and
Jer. 21:6, 7 and 9.
In Psalm
91:5-6, it says that we should not fear the terror of the night, the arrow of
the day, the pestilence that stalks in darkness, or the destruction that comes
at noon.
All these
plagues and pestilences were some kind of disease and epidemic sent down to
Earth and were never originated or sprouted out by themselves on this planet.
How could they, out from nothing? They were clearly sent down by God from
above. He does not live here in this world to create them here. He sent them
down from above.
For instance,
in Rev. 6:8, it speaks of “Pale Rider” kills a fourth of the earth with
the sword, famine, and pestilence. How could a “Pale Rider” come from Earth
except seen in the sky somewhere? They must have come from another world.
Absolutely,
and completely none of these phenomena plaguing this world in ancient past till
currently can be explained using our earthy science. We merely run hither and
tither desperately trying to find ways how to prevent a pandemic outbreak and
looking for some kind of a 'cure' for them such as using all kinds of
controversial drugs and vaccines.
But those
swords pierced onto this world will eventually be withdrawn from us as God
promised as with all past and ancient diseases, pestilences, with or without
any of our defences and unnecessary interventions. Bear this trustfully in Him
in our mind.
He speaks far,
far more powerfully than all our sciences and technologies
The Biological
Cosmic Warheads:
But if we
still believe in what scientists tell us rather than what the Bible reveal to
us, then we go back to square one again trying to explain mysteries on diseases
we don't understand especially their origin. I think our vision is being
blinked and blinded with blinkers on.
Are we
not scientifically logical enough to challenge the rational of looking at
genomes of this SARS to solve the problem instead of looking at it holistically
like the view seen by a bird soaring high into the air to examine the causes of
a traffic jam, the bottleneck, and the extent the jam was spreading, and in
which direction, while that poor myopic motorist down there on the ground was
still trying to sort the problem of the jam by looking at his car engine (the
RNA) under the bonnet (the viral coating) ?
Poor
chap, I must say. He will never be able to solve that traffic jam problem by
looking under his car bonnet. Looking under the bonnet and RNA, to my mind is a
blinded way of understanding and solving this problem. We will land up trying
to solve the hepatitis, HIV and the common cold problems. These jams still
persist.
Wouldn’t
it be reasonable if we were now to tell ourselves that our nostrils were
pointing downwards, and not upwards to minimize our risk of inhaling cosmic
particles that float downwards? After all, do we need to question the
Wisdom of God who designed and created us? He ensured that our nostrils need be
pointed downwards during His Masterpiece Blueprint, and not upwards to prevent
us from directly receiving those infective and hostile prion (virus-like)
particles floating down on us to protect us from harm’s way?
Isn’t He (God)
such a wonderful, wonderful and brilliant Designer and Protector of
life!
Think
about this wonderful design my dear scientists and counterparts. Open up our
eyes and minds heavenwards. Unto Him we must praise. You, me, and all living
things on Earth originated from out there, made from star dust that He created,
along with the viruses.
Hibernation
in Deep Freeze:
Cosmic
dust containing complex mixtures of organic molecules, probably containing DNA
fragments as well, not to say single-stranded RNA, are precursors and
signatures of all life. They are being released out there by comets passing by.
These passing comets release hundreds of thousands of tons of these ‘biological
passengers’ each time they come near the ‘spaceport’ of our Sun. The heat,
light and radiation of our Sun merely melt their icy loads of ‘biological
passengers’ (truly biological weapons) into our ‘port of call’ (Earth) and seed
them onto our earthly abode.
This is
like water vapour; carbon dioxide and hydrocarbons being discharged into our
atmosphere by passing aircrafts that constantly pollute and damage the atmosphere
and rain them on the surface.
If this
hypothesis on the mechanism proposed here is correct, then life is actually
seeded into Earth and allowed to germinate (created) here. God created it from
(star) dust. Life does not spring up spontaneously out of nothing. Nothing
begets nothing!
It has
to come from somewhere, and this needs to be created. An extremely hot Earth in
the very beginning was completely sterile and void of all life. Life was
brought in like seeds being scattered on cooled, sterile ground. When watered,
some will germinate right here, others will just lie barren.
Life,
including the nucleotides (RNA and DNA) can never suddenly make their
appearance out of nothing.
It makes
no scientific sense to me to say that a new virus called the atypical pneumonia
virus came out from nowhere. Even if we got it from our family duck, where did
that poor pet duck get it from in the first place? Why blame the poor duck, or
the “Chinese in Guandong Province '' They blamed the Chinese who eat anything.
They blamed it on Chinese food, so the Canadians believe. They blamed it on
anything – the emails I received contained all those ‘aetiologies.
Neither did
the SARS virus originate from our neighbour’s house, or from a hospital
patient, or someone who did not wash their hands or wear a face mask? The most
reckless thing we have come across is to put the blame on innocent ducks,
chickens, pigs, goats or on the Chinese from South China.
The
Chinese have been eating their food for over 9,000 years, and yet their
nutritious foods have enabled them to work so hard, produce so prolifically,
and thrive so healthily by the tens of billions over the generations of the
tens of centuries. Did the Chinese get SARS before March 2003 AD? Why only from
Guandong Province, and not all the Chinese in the world got it simultaneously?
Personally,
I am convinced that the present atypical pneumonia SARS virus is an entirely
life form brought here to Earth by cosmic dust. Organic molecules carried by
the periodically passing comets may have been responsible. These inert life
forms must have taken a very, long journey from another world, from another
‘country’ you may say, to spread their seedlings to another world – our Earth,
as a ‘foreign country’ (new ground) you may say.
This
analogy and reasoning is exactly like what the health authorities are talking
about all the time - spreading the disease from one country to another country
via fast jet airliners. They are right in many senses. Many infectious diseases
are imported by rapid travels.
But we
never look at it beyond the shores of this very, very tiny Earth.
Unfortunately, we have become so myopic (short- sighted) because of our
narrower, narrower specialization. We merely looked at the ravine below, and
jumped downwards at the deep blue sea, not realizing that the seeding has all
the while been raining down on us over our heads from above.
Even
without the comets, astronomers already know that hundreds of millions and
micrometeorites (about 300 million of them) pepper the Earth’s atmosphere every
day. Dozens of larger meteorites fall directly onto the Earth’s surface daily.
Cosmic
Debris into Oceans:
All
told, 1,000 metric tons of microscopic cosmic debris rain down on Earth every
day, even without a single comet seen in Earth’s neighbourhood. The discharge
load could be another 100,000 times more massive when a comet is around. How
much cosmic debris they rain down, depends on their mass, size, distance and
the constituency of these cosmic dirty snowballs.
This
figure rises tens of hundreds of times when the Earth orbits through the tail
of a passing comet.
Three
quarter of the Earth's surface is covered by oceans and most of the cosmic
debris would fall there
The
researchers say that the virus, or a trigger that causes it, is deposited
throughout space by dust in the debris stream of comets, which are thought
by many researchers to harbour organic material.
As Earth
passes through the stream, dust (and perhaps the virus) enters our atmosphere,
where it can lodge for two decades or more, until gravity pulls it down
"The
intense solar activity at sunspot maximum that causes bright displays of
aurorae also has the effect of driving viral particles or their triggers
rapidly to ground level," the researchers say
New
horizons in oceanography and genomics were opened up early March, 2004 with the
publication by Craig Venter and colleagues in a pilot study to shotgun clone
and sequencing of microbial genomes filtered from seawater in the Sargasso Sea,
off the coast of Bermuda
Unknown
1.2 million new genes were found in the oceans in a single sweep of the ocean
waters
(Science, DOI:10.1126/Science.1093857,
March 4,2004)
We want
to specially target this piece of information to the health authorities,
especially to the virologists, the epidemiologists and other medical
scientists, including the clinicians that untold numbers of new genetic
materials were found in the oceans that could give rise to pathogenesis and not
just known pathogens found on land among animals and in humans through cross
infections and other routes of transmissions
We think
it is high time doctors learn some astronomy to realize that infectious agents,
especially the new ones, could come from outer space, and not just from our
neighbour’s house, or the next village. It may originate and start from there.
Once down, they tend to spread out, and invade from the ground like those
paramilitary invaders who came parachuting down from the air and planes
Don’t be
myopic dear colleagues, scientists and doctors. Look above our heads, and
understand that you, I and every living creature on Earth first originated from
out there too.
A
Container Ship of Biological Goods:
Think about
this. Only the simplest form – the organic molecules, and at best, only the RNA
of viruses could survive this terribly, terribly long, long journey through the
cold, cold, frigid chasm of deep, deep space. These biological loads of
‘passengers’ would need to be hibernated at almost zero Kelvin (near absolute
temperature of - 270 degrees Celsius) to stabilize their molecular structures
after they were assembled somewhere out there in interstellar space. We are
very much less than a drop of water in a colossally huge ocean.
We are all
surrounded by unknown things – cosmic dust, interstellar dark matter. Some will
have complex organic molecules, and simple life forms in them, others none.
They must have been assembled (individual component parts) and packed into
‘container ships’ - that chuck of icy, dirty snowball of the comet’s head,
before they were shipped out from their ‘factory’ for ‘export’ into a foreign
land.
They were
shipped out by those exceedingly fast ‘space containers’ called comets to
another foreign world, just like we do here with factory components and spare
parts to be reassembled in another country of import.
These
‘biological goods’ (as I coin them) need to be encapsulated in deep freezing
temperatures near absolute temperature in order to ‘survive’ that horrendously
long, frigid and dark journey. They will also need an extremely fast
space-craft (the comet) to hurtle them through that bizarre long, long,
interstellar (between the stars) journey, from the Oort Cloud.
Oort Cloud:
This is a
titanic dark Cloud enveloping us all round was named after the Dutch astronomer
Jan Hendrik Oort. This intimidating Cloud is believed to surround the entire
Solar System. These ‘war-ships’ of unimaginable magnitude and masses are all
docked and ready at a distance of 50,000 AU or about 0.75 light year away.
(One AU or
Astronomical Unit is the mean distance between the Sun and the Earth, or
approximately 150,000,000 km away).
If we need the
exact figure, it is 149,597,870.691 km, and one light-year which is the
distance light travels in a year at a near velocity of 300,000 km per second. A
light year is approximately 10 million, million km or 1 followed by 13 zeros km
This Cloud contains swarms of comets some one trillion (one million, million,
or 1 followed by 12 zeros) in numbers.
This Cloud
from outer space is like a harbour docking container ships carrying bits of
unassembled biological 'weapons' no different from goods manufactured in one country
and shipped out in container ships in their parts to be assembled in another
country for mass destructions.
Once
these frozen biological parts are sowed in the oceans where life-giving water
are in plenty, they will germinate into new life forms and arise on land to be
hosted by animals and humans
The
Cosmic Patrol: A Trillion Hydrogen Bombs:
The Oort
Cloud as mentioned, is a huge mass of looming and dark gathering of comets
(‘natural container spaceships’) surrounding our entire Solar System
menacingly. Each of them contains warheads of biological weapons of true
magnitude of mass destruction. It is estimated that in the Oort Cloud there are
about a trillion of these comets surrounding not just us, but the entire Solar
System – all ready to be sent out as disease-carrying warheads.
Even if they
are all sterile, each of them is so huge and massive, that if just one of them
were to crash onto Earth, their destruction by mere physical punch alone, is to
the tune of 140,000 times more than the entire nuclear arsenal in the world
fired simultaneously. This magnitude from just a single comet, far, far exceeds
all the nuclear weapons of former President George Bush, Tony Blair, or
countries like China, France, and Russia, or Iran, Pakistan, India, perhaps
Israel as well, put together.
Power of a
Comet:
We have
already calculated this out before. Imagine a typical comet 10 km wide (radius
5000 metres).
It will have a
volume = 4/3. Pi. R^3 = 5.23 X 10^11 cubic metres.
A
typical density of a comet is 3,000 kg per cubic metre. Thus, the total mass is
in the order of 1.5708 X 10^15 kg. Its velocity near the vicinity of the Sun’s
pull (accelerating as it comes nearer and nearer) is in the region of 60 km
(60,000 metres) per second. The kinetic energy developed would be ½ mv^2 = 2.8
X 10^24 Joules (where m = mass, mv = final velocity).
Most of
the hydrogen bombs on Earth are only a megaton (1 million tons of TNT) each in
power.
At one
megaton, each nuclear bomb delivers 4 x 10^15 Joules of energy. It is estimated
the current stock-pile of all the nuclear arsenals in the world is about 5,000
one megaton. This means if all the nuclear devices were to be put together, and
exploded at the same time, the total energy released is 2 X 10 ^19 Joules.
The
impact of a typical comet just calculated out would be in the order of 2.8 X
10^24 Joules. This means that a single impact of just a single comet on Earth
is equivalent to 140,000 times more than all the thermonuclear devices in this
entire world. That alone makes a comet not a biological warhead, but a
destructive bomb of unimaginable magnitude if it were to collide with
Earth. Isn’t this fascinating?
And,
what’s more. There are 1 trillion of these comets hiding and waiting out there
already in the Oort Cloud, all docked some 0.75 light years away.
We do
not even know how many of them carry biological weapons of untold latency, and
ready-to-call-up for war and destruction, not just for this tiny Earth, but to
the entire Solar System perhaps? The Bible speaks of a great star called
Wormwood which fell into the sea and men and creatures were destroyed
(Revelation 8:8-11).
Clusters
of these comets periodically come to our neighbourhood, make a circuit to
patrol around us, making periodic checks in groups as if to see what we are
doing.
Previously
at the time of writing in 2003 they were fighting with Saddam Hussein, Osama
fighting with George Bush, Israel with Palestine perhaps? Each of them made our
infinitesimal and crude man-made weapons pale in comparison.
While all
these things are going on, virologists and scientists are still looking at
genes on Earth that they think may be the only source of disease
But they
do not realize clouds of weapons are surrounding us from all sides, making
frequent patrolling rounds, and watching us over the centuries.
Dinosaurs,
Human Civilization and Our Alien Guests:
Personally,
I believe it was a comet or an asteroid chunk that came crashing down on Earth
with a viral load that wiped out the entire population of dinosaurs 70 million
years ago. Others may not agree.
Allow me
to theorize that it was an epidemic of diseases brought in by a comet that
killed off these giant lizards, and not dust generated by the impact that
generated an artificial ‘winter’ to cut off photosynthesis, causing the
vegetation on which the dinosaurs fed to die as other scientists believe. We
all have independent scientific thinking. I have my own independent life.
Most of
these extra-terrestrial missiles may be armed with a variety of biological
warheads to sweep round and round our territorial (cosmic) space. It may have
been a God-sent warning of gigantic magnitude for us fragile humans if we do
not behave.
Once this huge
comet’s “spaceships” approaches their next ‘port of call’ (planet Earth) where
the radiant light and heat of our life-giving Sun is, and in the neighbourhood
of a ‘garden’ (the Earth), they will shed some of their passenger load of
‘biological weapons’, like seeds being thrown on soft moist ground to
germinate.
After
all, Earth has plenty of water, an ambient temperature, a friendly and
conducive environment, and billions of generous hosts like you and me, our
ducks, hens, and birds, and cattle all around to receive them. Such
hospitality, why not? In astronomy we called this a habitable zone around our
Sun or the Goldilocks Zone.
Our
Hospitable World:
The heat
and light from our friendly Sun will thaw this icy load of ‘foreign visitors’.
These comets unpack and unload their ‘biological guests’ into our homes, and
into our bodies. After all, with all these hospitable human hosts, plus our
ducks, hens, and birds ‘they’ can live comfortably here for a few months before
leaving us. Wouldn’t this biological hospitality we give them, exactly like
turning on our home and car porch lights (the Sun) on to invite strange
visitors in the night. After all they came from such a long, long,
dark, lonely and frigidly cold and lonely journey to visit
us. Wouldn’t we not welcome them in?
When
they come a-calling, we would provide them with water, lodging, shelter and
food (lodging, shelter and food being yours and my bodies). Our family members,
the ducks and chicken all living together also share their hospitality, their
shelter and their food (their blood and cells) with them.
What’s
more, these alien ‘guests’ are also free to move about from host to host. They
are not very choosy, so long as someone can provide them with the appropriate
food and warmth after arriving from a terribly long, cold, and hazardous
journey. After all, they have been hibernating without food throughout that
incredibly unforgiving journey.
Don’t we
welcome them, and they take the pleasure of our hospitality? After they have
fed on yours, mine, and our avian family kindness, and our ‘guests’ will go
away, exactly like all those past epidemics of flu, and influenza did in the
past with or without our vaccines.
All or
None Law: The Blind Sheep:
SARS
isolated ‘epidemic’ is absolutely nothing compared to the Spanish flu pandemic
that wiped out 2,000,000 (2 million) people in 1918.
Whatever
the past history of influenza, they all went away only after we realized they
were invaders. Our body sounds the alarm with high temperatures, generates all
the appropriate classes and subclasses of antibodies, the various types of
antibody-producing B-lymphocytes, perhaps even the T-lymphocytes (for
rejection), monocytes (to ingest debris and foreign particles), and activated
all other immunological defences against them.
They
come and go periodically depending on our immunological status against them,
and the frequency, passage and visits of these ‘black biological clouds’. For
thousands of millions of years these ‘biological container ships’ have been
hurtling at 50-60 km per second above our heads - their earthy port of call.
Once the
spark of life is ignited or created, it could then be evolved through
multiple transgenic mutations into many other life forms
Would
this be in-conformity with the Theory of Creation first, followed by the
Theory of Evolution later?
I
believe the SARS issue has opened up an old wound once again for arguments
among scientists about their origin. I have forwarded mine in this essay
Like a
flock of sheep that follows its leaders blindly to jump from the cliff top into
the sea, I think the entire scientific community is also doing the same by
following each other’s blind spot.
Unfortunately,
I was no different from a member of this community. If we merely look
downwards, with myopic eyes and an introvert earth straddled mind, we would
continue to blame the ducks, birds, poultry, and farm animals, our neighbours,
the hospital patients and medical staff who did not don face masks
Zoonotic
Disease:
We blame
ourselves last. We will blame it as a zoonotic disease, because we refuse to
look heaven-wards to accept that the elementary spark of life could have
arrived like an Olympic Torch from a very distant world to start off this race
of epidemics.
I know
most of my scientific-medical friends and colleagues still believe that it was
the ducks and the cats, or the Southern Chinese (who ate everything) who
started all this? Why blame all these emerging new infectious diseases on
animals, or on specific ethnic groups? Was this new strain of coronavirus truly
factory made in China, or was it unfortunately rained down on China by
statistically random selection from another planet?
After I
wrote my first letter, I gave it a second thought, and realized how wrong I was
like any other member of the scientific community. Suddenly, I found myself as
blind as the rest of a flock of blind sheep.
We
merely follow our leader, and each other to jump over the high cliff down into
the sea below. The rest of the herd will follow the suicidal jump down into the
deep blue sea. They merely looked down, never upwards.
In many
ways I am very happy I took up astronomy to look at distant worlds as a hobby
and saw a great difference in the way I now think.
Else, we
will only be peering downwards short-sighted through a microscope. We are
afraid this is exactly what scientists and doctors are doing currently, running
hither and thither trying to identify the SARS virus or other similar related
viruses yet to come.
Did we
examine where it came from in the first place? We are just not brave enough to
put our foot down to speak a mind of our own and say something different, lest
we make a laughingstock of ourselves among our learned and elite scientific and
academic colleagues?
Perhaps
I may have made myself a black sheep among a flock of normal white sheep. I
merely speak my own mind, because I believe this new virus was never a mutant
form from those families of CoVs.
I have a
feeling that all previously unknown viruses also did not originate from this
Earth. Why should they be when the supply from the dark Oort Cloud is almost
enormously unlimited?
Neither
did they come from pigs, cats, goats and the cows. Neither did it sprout out
from a Chinese body somewhere in China nor was it from the Chinese food they
eat. These aliens may have come directly from outer space. I am not crazy to
believe it this way.
My Passion in
Astronomy and Astrobiology:
I think
a lot of us out there know my passion for astronomy. This debate about diseases
and life coming from the Comets is not new.
The
distinguished Cambridge Astronomer and Mathematician Sir Fred Hoyle
(1915-2001), who later worked at the world-famous California Institute of
Technology (CIT), together with the celebrated Professor Dr Chandra
Wickramasinghe have published a long list of technical papers on their
hypothesis and findings in prestigious scientific journals about the appearance
of comets and plagues.
The
Black Death in the 1300s and several major pandemics of the Bubonic Plagues
were linked to the appearances of great comets. Their studies have shown this.
So were ancient Chinese records listing a chain of comets and plague
incidences.
Were
these just coincidences? Were Fred Holye, Chandra Wickramasinhe, and
all the ancient civilizations over the centuries that connected the appearance
of comets and diseases on Earth all coincidental or were they also black sheep
among white-coat modern scientists and doctors? If they are, count me in as
well. I would rather be dubbed as one wearing a black coat with
ancient wisdom, rather than one in white coat with modern arrogance.
Hoyle
and Chrandra have shown that many sudden pandemics and epidemics of new
infectious diseases in the past were closely correlated to the passage of
comets. They came out with this proposition called ‘The Panspermia Theory’
Their
publications are far too long for me to list here. In any case, this and all
articles posted in this blog are just light non-technical essays meant for
general lay readers that would not require references unlike research papers.
Later their
theories were joined by other scientific minds and researchers who thought the
same, as the evidence kept rolling in. They are so compelling to believe. One
of Hoyle and Wickramasinghe papers was “Does Epidemic Disease Come from Space”
which was published in “New Scientist, 76:402, 1977”. Among one of Hoyle’s best
works was “The Black Cloud” It speaks about an intelligent and a very much
alive cloud which was approaching the Solar System.
Professor
Chris Kinsley of Cambridge calculated its proximity between the Sun and Earth
which would lead to global disaster….and so the story went (it was only a story
then).
Hoyle
did show the epidemiology of influenza increased with altitude and was linked
with the presence of a comet in the region of earth a few months earlier. He
demonstrated this correlation many times over, but the medical community chose
to ignore his findings, and blamed it on something else earth-bound.
Yet
these medical researchers could not show an iota of evidence where all those
seasonal influenza bugs came from, or what triggered them. They all keep saying
it’s ‘mutation, its mutation. I am just presenting scientific truth to you. In
Science, if the result is zero, we will ethically say it is zero, and if it is
positive and quantifiable, we will show the exact data to the entire world
through our technical publications. We don’t claim what is not there.
Scientific and
medical training, their education and discipline are very strict and
regimented. Academic honesty, ethics, and professionalism are their hallmark,
and are used as ethical guidelines. The scientist / doctor moral code is like
that. If there are strong reasons for us to argue logically based on previous
observations and findings, or even based on a logical hypothesis, we will stand
up to provide all the background evidence. There is nothing to hide, or twist
around.
Recent
Visits:
It is
just not possible for me to discuss this complex and lengthy subject here any
further. It will cover another 50-60 more pages. And what about all the recent
comets that came in the early part of 2003? I have a long list of them, but it
is just possible to me to write and name them – Wirtanen, Swift-Neat,
Churyumov-Gerasimenko, Wild 2, Shoemaker-Levy, Shoemaker 3, Neat-Linear and so
on.
Those
comets originating from the titanic dark organic Clouds out there in
interstellar space could harbor life-giving compounds.
Their
debris peppers the Earth whenever they vaporized in the vicinity of the Sun.
These
compounds in the presence of heat, light and energy from the Sun could trigger
off synthesis (reassemble) from component parts into neurotropic viruses, and
infectious prion particles. Prion particles are atypical viruses, proteinaceous
in nature that could explain the emergence of strange diseases like Kuru,
Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, Gerstmann-Straussler-Scheinker disease, bovine
spongiform encephalopathy and fatal familial insomnia, as examples among many
others.
Now this
thing called severe acute respiratory syndrome, our current visitor, is your
and my guest too? I believe shall be more SARS-related pandemic yet to
come.
We have lots
of other ideas and hypotheses which we could type and type through the pages
…all night through - one o’clock, two o’clock, three o’clock… all night long
round the clock till drawn breaks till the next few days.
My Former
Thought Cast into Eternal Jail:
That old
belief of mine by following others blindly - that SARS was a zoonotic disease
originating from animals living together with the Chinese in crowded flats in
Southern China, and Hong Kong, along with the even more bizarre Canadian theory
that SARS is caused by the Chinese eating their own pets as part of their
family food should be cast into eternal jail.
My
theory is that we should be locked up in the East Wing, and the Canadians in
the West Wing, so that we don’t see each other's faces anymore - forever. Other
scientific minds are free to have their own theories.
After
all, mutations is their business, but none of mine. But none has told me where
the first virus came from to start off this mutagenic chain?
(This
is a 9,373 -worded essay was written for general lay readers way into the
night till dawn)
lim ju
boo
