First of all, there is no single “coronavirus.” Coronaviruses are a large, zoonotic class of viruses. Zoonotic means that they are easily transmitted between animals and people. One example of a notorious zoonotic virus is the Spanish Flu, which became a pandemic that killed between 50 million and 100 million people, approximately 5% of the globe’s population.
Second of all, while it is not entirely inaccurate to refer to the current virus as just a “situation,” it is more precise to call it what it is: an outbreak. And it is likely to become a pandemic. A pandemic is a pathogen that invades a country or planet.
Within the past 15 years, there have been numerous coronavirus outbreaks. Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, SARS-CoV, emerged in 2002-2003 from civet cats in Guangdong, China. While it only infected 8,000 people, it killed about a tenth of the people it infected. That is a much higher mortality rate than that of 2019-nCoV, the coronavirus currently causing worldwide alarm. Another recent coronavirus to become a pandemic was Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, MERS-CoV. It originated in Jordan in 2012 and infected more than 2,000 people. The mortality rate was 30-40%.
The coronavirus outbreak of late 2019 and early 2020 is causing fright across the globe. In late December, ophthalmologist Dr. Li Wenliang cautioned about a “SARS-like disease” and said that he could not be a bystander while the number of infected grew exponentially. He was silenced by the Chinese government and later died in early February from the disease.
Subsequent to Dr. Wenliang’s warning, the Chinese government became more conscious of the crisis at hand. China quarantined the city of Wuhan in its entirety to try to reduce the virus’ spread; however, the virus spread to countries in Asia, Europe, North America, Australia, and more continued. Some scrutinize the Chinese government’s belated response, while others praise their isolating of the city of Wuhan, the epicenter of the outbreak.
More than 76,000 people have been diagnosed with 2019-nCoV and upward of 2,200 people have died. While most of the infected reside in mainland China, there are 16 confirmed cases of the virus in the United States.
Should Americans be worried? No, not for the moment. The virus is a pressing threat to China, not Americans. Experts are clear to warn that the virus has the potential to become a serious threat to, not only the United States, but the entire world. For now, America’s largest concern should be influenza, or seasonal flu, officials say.
It is likely that the anxiety regarding 2019-nCoV is caused by its foreignness, in that Americans are not accustomed to hearing about the coronavirus in the news in the same way that they are accustomed to yearly influenza warnings and its death toll. It is approximated that between 12,000 and 61,000 of those affected by influenza will die every year. While that quantity is significantly higher than the death toll of 2019-nCov, there is still much unknown about the zoonotic virus. The death toll is unfortunately expected to rise as more people are diagnosed with the virus.
Over time, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome seemed to disappear; the number of cases decreased tremendously until it was widely believed to have been eradicated in 2004. There are still too many unknown variables about 2019-nCoV to predict whether or not it will have the same fate.
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