Are new coronaviruses as terrifying as SARS?

Are new coronaviruses as terrifying as SARS?

Speaking of “new coronavirus”, everyone may be unfamiliar, but when talking about SARS and SARS in 2003, everyone may be familiar.

SARS is caused by a new coronavirus. So is new coronavirus pneumonia SARS? Official answer: not SARS!

Coronaviruses are a group of pathogens that cause respiratory and intestinal diseases. Under the electron microscope, we can see that there are many regularly arranged protrusions on the surface of such virus particles. The entire virus particle is like an emperor’s crown, hence the name “coronavirus”.

So far, there are six known human coronaviruses, of which four coronaviruses are more common in the population, have lower pathogenicity, and generally cause only minor respiratory symptoms similar to the common cold.

The other two coronaviruses—Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus—also known as SARS Coronavirus and MERS Coronavirus.

What Wuhan has discovered is a new type of coronavirus that has not been previously found in humans. On January 12, 2020, the World Health Organization officially named the new coronavirus that caused the pneumonia epidemic in Wuhan as “2019 new coronavirus.”

From the epidemiological results, the infectivity of the new coronavirus is lower than that of SARS in 2003, and from the clinical point of view, the severity of the disease is also lower than that of SARS. This shows that viruses are just like humans. Although different viruses are close relatives, their dispositions, attitudes, and behaviors are very different. Although the new coronavirus is a close relative of SARS, it is not as terrible as SARS.

However, coronavirus is highly contagious and it is still a huge life threat to all people, especially young children, the elderly, obese, pregnant women, and people with basic diseases. So we still cannot take it lightly.