We know how to “kill” the SARS-CoV-2 virus in vitro (in a test tube). Ammonia, bleach, UV light. Heck, even diluted mouthwash will do the trick.
The problem is that none of these approaches are safe in vivo (in the body). All of the approaches the article talks will require years of human testing. The drug EIDD-2801 does similar things but has yet to pass testing even after 12 months of studies.
This work is a great example of the new insights we get from recent advances in cryo-electron microscopy. It's much easier to formulate responses to mechanisms when we can get clear pictures of the sites in question.
If you could have a bunch of random protein sensors that undergo a training phase where they learn what "Host" is. Anything that makes a "detection" during training is discarded. Anything that doesn't is either never going to detect stuff, or might detect something "Foreign".
These then float around your blood stream and either do nothing until they are lost, or go crazy replicating and raising the alarm when something Foreign shows up.
A danger with this method is random sequences that are just really bad at detecting "Host" or a training period that is cut short. This might lead to autoimmune responses.
This thought might give some hints about how to combat autoimmune diseases without disrupting the greater immune system.
Likely, human intelligence and world view will end up being derived from a handful of genes, thus further blinding humanity to data outside of our worldview.
Imagine a world where everyone has the same level, and type, of emotional response to data, feels the same as a result of environmental stimuli, eg cold/warm/wet etc.
Imagine a world where if your next door neighbor cannot figure out something, no one ever can, for there are no geniuses or dullards.
The sameness of thought will make future society dull, compared to the Amish.
(Think it won't happen that fast? Laws will prevent it? Imagine your neighbour flies off-shore, and comes back with his child gene edited for appearance, intelligence, health. Now you are about to have a child. What do you do? Compared to the neighbour's child, yours will be dull, sickly, ugly. What will you do?
Now imagine the rich and powerful do this, bit you cannot afford it?
1%er indeed.)
Some studies show political leanings as genetically derived. Each human views the world with different senses, yet imagine all sensory input being significantly less divergent. Same taste. Smell.
I think you significantly underestimate the importance of genes.
Maybe they're right maybe they are wrong, but hardly seems redundant.
https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.03.05.21252997v...