Assignment #

Course title# Sociological Theories

Instructor # Ma’am Sidra Umer

Submitted by# Basma Saleem

Roll #011

Date# 24 March 2020

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Sociological perspectives on coronavirus:
Corona virus:

Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is an infectious disease caused by a new virus.The disease

causes respiratory illness (like the flu) with symptoms such as a cough, fever, and in more severe
cases, difficulty breathing. You can protect yourself by washing your hands frequently, avoiding
touching your face, and avoiding close contact (1 meter or 3 feet) with people who are unwell.

HOW IT SPREADS

Coronavirus disease spreads primarily when a person touches an object with their

through contact with an infected person eyes, nose or mouth

when they cough or sneeze. It also spreads

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 .

Sociological perspectives

Sociologists today employ three primary theoretical perspectives: the symbolic interactionist

perspective, the functionalist perspective, and the conflict perspective. These perspectives
offer sociologists theoretical paradigms for explaining how society influences people, and vice
versa.

Functionalist perspective on corona virus:

The coronavirus spike protein is a multifunctional molecular machine that mediates coronavirus
entry into host cells. It first binds to a receptor on the host cell surface through its S1 subunit and
then fuses viral and host membranes through its S2 subunit. Two domains in S1 from different
coronaviruses recognize a variety of host receptors, leading to viral attachment. The spike
protein exists in two structurally distinct conformations, prefusion and postfusion. The transition
from prefusion to postfusion conformation of the spike protein must be triggered, leading to

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membrane fusion. This article reviews current knowledge about the structures and functions of
coronavirus spike proteins, illustrating how the two S1 domains recognize different receptors and
how the spike proteins are regulated to undergo conformational transitions. I further discuss the
evolution of these two critical functions of coronavirus spike proteins, receptor recognition and
me Coronaviruses belong to the family Coronaviridae in the order Nidovirales (10, 11). They
can be classified into four genera: Alphacoronavirus, Betacoronavirus, Gammacoronavirus,
and Deltacoronavirus (Figure 1a). Among them, alpha-and betacoronaviruses infect mammals,
gammacoronaviruses infect avian species, and deltacoronaviruses infect both mammalian and
avian species. Representative alphacoronaviruses include human coronavirus NL63 (HCoV-
NL63), porcine transmissible gastroenteritis coronavirus (TGEV), PEDV, and porcine
respiratory coronavirus (PRCV). Representative betacoronaviruses include SARS-CoV, MERS-
CoV, bat coronavirus HKU4, mouse hepatitis coronavirus (MHV), bovine coronavirus (BCoV),
and human coronavirus OC43. Representative gamma-and deltacoronaviruses include avian
infectious bronchitis coronavirus (IBV) and porcine deltacoronavirus (PdCV), respectively.
Coronaviruses are large, enveloped, positive-stranded RNA viruses. They have the largest
genome among all RNA viruses, typically ranging from 27 to 32 kb. The genome is packed
inside a helical capsid formed by the nucleocapsid protein (N) and further surrounded by an
envelope. Associated with the viral envelope are at least three structural proteins: The membrane
protein (M) and the envelope protein (E) are involved in virus assembly, whereas the spike
protein (S) mediates virus entry into host cells. Some coronaviruses also encode an envelope-
associated hemagglutinin-esterase protein (HE). Among these structural proteins, the spike forms
large protrusions from the virus surface, giving coronaviruses the appearance of having crowns
(hence their name; corona in Latin means crown) (Figures 1b and and2a).2a). In addition to
mediating virus entry, the spike is a critical determinant of viral host range and tissue tropism
and a major inducer of host immune responses.mbrane fusion, in the context of the
corresponding functions from other viruses and host cells.

Interactionist perspective:

Almost every state is trying to sum up with the possible solution of overcoming coronavirus.

Government is taking several steps to make people aware of the consequences of this virus.

Governments of all the states are trying to develop a MEDICINE for the virus addicted people
and it would soon be bringing a valuable result to this society as medicals are trying day and
night to get over this serious issue. So overall this coronavirus is just a big flu. If we as a team
we can surely overcome this situation.

Conflict perspective:

Coronavirus has made a strong wall among many friendly states of the world travelling to all the
countries has been stopped due to this issue in fact a bunch of people cannot stand together at a
particular place. People are advised to stay limited to their home.

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Gatherings are disallowed in all most every society so no Communications can be done till this
issue is not resolved.

Unfortunately this issue has brought the complete world onto its knees.

Reference page

https://www.hoover.org/research/coronavirus-isnt-pandemic

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https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5457962/