Anybody got a cliff notes version of what this virus is?
The coronavirus is the type of virus that gave us MERS and SARS - viruses with very high mortality rates, but which spread more slowly. This is not a "flu" or "cold" virus variant.
To add more depth - the Spanish flu of 1918 led to more deaths than WWI & WWII combined. The mortality rate is estimated to have been somewhere between 10%-20%. The mortality rate for SARS is 15% (over 50% for people over 64). The mortality rate for MERS was 34%.
The current mortality rate for this virus in unknown, but estimated at 4%. Let's compare that to the "regular" flu with a mortality rate of .1% and still produces 650,000 deaths globally every year. Any virus with a 4% mortality rate that is highly infectious would kill tens of millions. So, if this spreads as easily as the flu, the world would change. Thankfully, that does not appear to be the case.
The R0 (the number of people that get infected by an infected person, or the rate of spread) for this virus is estimated to be between 1.5-2.5, so let's call it a 2. The R0 for SARS was about 3.5. The R0 for MERS is only 1. So, if proper steps are taken, and if these R0 figures are accurate, we should be able to contain this.
So, while it is does not appear to be as serious a concern as it could be, the emergence of a third coronavirus strain in humans in less than 20 years is the real concern. Eventually we will see a coronavirus virus that spreads easily and the world will mourn.
