Confused about Coronavirus?

Let’s talk about what everyone is talking about 

The new Coronavirus. Is this the Big One? 

Honestly, it’s hard to say but it’s moving fast and it doesn’t look good. What started in the city of Wuhan in early December has now grown into a global health emergency. And as the contagion spread beyond China so did the fear. I’m really afraid that the virus might infect me or my family members. We all have questions. 

How contagious is this new virus? 

What are the symptoms? And how do we stay safe? 

So this is what we’re dealing with: a virus they started calling 2019-now. The N’s for the novel, meaning new and CoV stands for Coronavirus. And this is what it looks like. It’s like viruses we’ve seen before and come from the same family as SARS and MERS. But we’ll explain the science in a bit. First, let’s get a sense of how we got here. It started with a viral blip: a few cases of pneumonia in Wuhan. Then doctors noticed that many of the people who were sick had a connection to a market that sold fish and wildlife. From there the virus spread until tens of millions of people in China in China were put under quarantine.     

Wuhan was locked down first. ”Flight has been canceled.” Airlines pulled flights and trains stopped running. Schools and businesses were closed and people were told to stay indoors. And although some residents were making light of the lockdown many are struggling to hang in there. They just don’t know how long this is all going to last. The virus has now been found in all of China’s 31 provinces. It’s put the country on high alert. In a rare move, the government has closed the Forbidden City here in Beijing over health concerns related to the coronavirus. People are avoiding any kind of place where there are crowds. So, therefore, sports arenas, hotels, bars, restaurants movie theatres are not going to be doing very well for quite some time. Stock markets took a dive and there’s talk about the global economy being dragged down. 

So what do we know about Coronaviruses? 

what the mortality rate is. We also know that early cases were linked to that market in Wuhan where we know live animals were in close contact with people which is not unusual in Chinese markets. It would’ve given that mutated virus ample opportunity to find a human host. This virus, this novel Coronavirus that we're seeing out of Wuhan, is 96% similar to a virus carried by bats that we have studied in China.

So this also is a bat virus and the big question is how did it get into this market? One of the problems with this virus is that it's hard to tell if you have it. It might just feel like you have a cold. We know it can give you cough and fever even shortness of breath. But one in five people get severely ill and have developed pneumonia, kidney failure. Some have died. So you don’t want to wait too long before you see a doctor. Ultimately how badly it affects you seems to depend on how strong your body’s immune system is. Of the people who have so far died most of them were elderly and most of them had an underlying illness. So for the moment, you know, the doctors the experts are telling us we do not need to be too alarmed because at the moment we're not sure just how deadly this virus is. One thing we know is that the virus incubates between two and 14 days before a person shows signs of being sick. But it’s been a struggle to understand how contagious it is.

China’s National Health Commission said that a person without symptoms is still infectious. Which is pretty scary. But the WHO backed away from that and said the most common way of getting the virus is from people who are already visibly sick. So how does it travel? Scientists are working off clues based on how SARS and MERS behave. With those two the virus travels from person to person through droplets that can enter someone’s body through their nose, mouth or even eyes. And that generally requires close contact.

The best-case scenario is that it has a strong seasonal impact and that as the climate warms up in China it sort of dwindles by itself. But I’m afraid that’s not very realistic. Something else we know is the virus’s genetic sequence which China made public in the early days of the outbreak. This DNA map has helped scientists come up with a test to diagnose the virus. It might also lead to a vaccine. A vaccine is, of course, the long-term solution because developing one takes time and costs millions of dollars. So right now it’s all about the emergency response. We’re talking about creating thousands of people many of them suffering alone in hospital beds away from their families and probably feeling pretty scared.

The health workers taking care of them are too. And they’re overwhelmed. Across China, medical supplies including diagnostic kits have been running out. So it has bed space. have been running out. So it has bed space. In response, the Chinese government built two field hospitals in Wuhan from scratch in a matter of weeks. And one factory in Thailand put in overtime to make more surgical masks even though not all medical experts are convinced they’re much protection in public. There’s a lot of fear and misinformation out there right now so while the scientists are working out how to contain the outbreak here’s the general advice from the experts. Stay away from people who are sick. If you ill see a doctor sooner rather than later. Cough into your elbow or a tissue, not your hands to avoid spreading germs. And wash your hands. A lot. You know the basics.

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