Understanding COVID-19 from an Exotic Honey Bee-Disease Perspective

The rapid spread of the disease had taken the medical and scientific world by surprise, and it is still trying to fully understand the condition and to apply an appropriate terminology to describe it. There seems to be a preoccupation with its infectivity or transmission rate yet very rarely is its virulence reported on. The fact that in the early stages there was limited medical intervention (and no vaccine) that could be used, and patients were largely depending on their own innate immunity, is similar to what happens with honey bees where no intervention (treatment) is applied in the case of an exotic parasite such as the Varroa mite. It is therefore interesting to compare the development of this infectious disease in humans with infections or infestations in honey bees. Also, the exotic nature of COVID-19, and each of its variants, is seldom alluded to even though this can give a useful insight as to how it would be expected to develop, and in particular the expected reduction in its virulence over time.