You’re seeing it all over the news, may it be on TV, your phone, newspapers, websites, you name it; everyone is talking about Coronavirus. The disease was formally known as the “Wuhan Virus” as the outbreak originated in the capital city of Wuhan in the province of Hubei in China. The name was changed to Coronavirus since that’s the actual name of the family the virus is part of. Either way, the increasing number of cases and the rising death toll being shown in media is causing mass panic overseas and potentially here at home soon enough.
The biggest problem right now is the media acting like this is something new, as never before seen virus hell-bent on killing all humans and bringing forth a modern medieval age. The fact is this…We’ve seen this virus before but at the time we saw it in 2003 it was being called by its true name, SARS, or SARS-CoV. The name means Severe Acute Repertory Syndrome Coronavirus. What we are witnessing going on in the world now is SARS-CoV-2.
SARS-CoV-2 under an electron microscope / Wikipedia
SARS-CoV-2 is almost the same as SARS-CoV but what they do to those infected differ. People exposed to SARS-CoV-2 (Coronavirus) experience fever, cough, shortness of breath, sneezing, runny nose, sore throat, and diarrhea that eventually leads to complications like Pneumonia, Acute Respiratory Distress, and kidney failure resulting in death. At the time of writing this the death toll of SARS-CoV-2 is 2,707, the number of those who have made a recovery is 27,898 and the number of current confirmed cases being 80,379.
Metropolitan
The easiest way to combat the outbreak or alleviate your fears of it is to simply practice hygiene and common sense. Washing your hands with hot water and soap before prepping and eating meals, don’t touch your face with unclean hands, wash surfaces you touch with bleach/disinfecting products. If you’re sick, stay home, if you have to cough or sneeze do it in a tissue or the in the elbow crease of your arm. If you feel sick and want to visit a doctor, call ahead so they’ll be ready for you, and if you have to go out in public to please wear a surgical mask.
