Alright team, let's talk about the Coronavirus and why you shouldn't start prepping for Doomsday just yet.
So what exactly is this thing? A coronavirus (CoV) describes a family of viruses. They infect hosts from all different types of species, but humans are affected by 7 that we've found so far. These include the common cold, SARS (SARS-CoV), MERS (MERS-CoV), and novel (2019-nCOV) 1/
So where did it come from? Viruses tend to stick to a specific host and evolve over generations to try to reach a homeostasis where they don't kill their hosts, but infect them enough to propagate their species. 2/
Sometimes, however, two host species are in close enough proximity to one another that the second species is exposed to the other's virus. This happens literally all the time and causes no substantive issues. Your pets carry viruses but they don't get you sick...but sometimes 3/
A mutation occurs resulting in a virus that can cross the species divide. This process is called zoonosis. This is where avian flu, ebola, and a litany of other illnesses came from. Innocuous viruses in one species wreaking havoc in another. 4/
Enter the novel (new) coronavirus (2019-nCoV). A zoonotic jump in Wuhan, China resulted in what we are now seeing. If people were only getting sick from being around animals, this would be easy as we could quarantine and destroy those animals. However, the virus now spreads 5/
between people. So is this it? The plague all those memers have been begging for for so long?? As of right now, we can't tell. Epidemics along with Viruses are...complicated. So let's break the problem into 3 parts: 1) How does it spread? 2) Who is it killing? 3)how fast is it?6/
1) Coronaviruses are cousins of SARS, MERS, and our favorite dinosaur turned chicken, the Cold. They largely infect and spread through the upper respiratory system resulting in flu-like symptoms, with their own flavor in each species. 7/
Coughing, sneezing, runny noses, phlegm, all of these carry the virus. So to contain them, just wear masks right?? Well, sort of. We don't know if victims are infectious (can spread the virus) before they are symptomatic ("get sick"). 8/
2) As far as reports are showing, its largely killing those with compromised immune systems, the elderly (weak immune system) and the very young (underdeveloped immune systems). 9/
3) We don't know how fast it spreads. We also don't know how many people the average person is infecting yet. Immunology is based on a lot of statistics, and statistics require large population sizes for accuracy. So, we'll see. 10/
Right now, we have a lot of questions and not a lot of answers. It's not for lack of medical readiness, its more to do with a lack of information sharing between countries and the fact that statistical models need accurate data pools to help us plan. 11/
So how can you protect yourself? Get your flu-shot, keep yourself healthy, wash your hands after you cough or sneeze into them, and make sure others around you do the same. If you do all that, and still feel yourself getting sick, go see a doctor. 12/
In a world of Bio-Threats, everyone is a sensor and their strongest defense against sickness. /end.
