Coronavirus 1,000 times more infectious than SARS...!

[pbmus]

Link to tweet

[Jamastiene]

1. Has it even come close, yet, to killing as many people as flu does every year?

People are panicking.

[Ms. Toad]

5. So we should wait until it kills as many as the flu

before we recognize a situation as dangerous?

The virus went from non-existent to killing 2900 in less than 3 months. It surpassed the SARS 2-year death total (the last equivalent newly emerging virus) in not much more than a moth.

[Jamastiene]

7. I never said that.

Reasonable precautions can be taken without panicking. Panicking will not stop the spread. People really are panicking. Be reasonable about it is the point.

[dewsgirl]

11. +1

[berni_mccoy]

6. The current fatality rate is many times that of the flu

Total deaths aren’t there yet but it’s tracking with the lethality of SARS.

[sarisataka]

10. Not according to the article

SARS death rate was over 9%, Coronavirus is put at about 2-3% but the cruise ship total is less than 1%.

[berni_mccoy]

14. Their math is wrong

If you look at CFR corona is at 7.7% in China alone. It was 6% with SARS

See https://www.democraticunderground.com/100213023469

[Mike 03]

2. Could this be why some "recovered" people become re-infected?

The coronavirus could be up to 1,000 times more infectious than SARS because it plagues the body in the same way as HIV and Ebola, scientists warn.

Experts initially presumed the spread of COVID-19 would follow the same trajectory as the SARS outbreak in 2002/3, because the viruses are almost identical genetically.

But they have discovered the way it binds to cells in the human body is akin to far more aggressive diseases like HIV and Ebola.

This makes it '100 to 1,000 times' more efficient at infecting people than SARS, according to researchers from Nankai University in Tianjin, northern China.

snip

Nankai University researchers looked at the genome sequence of COVID-19 and found a section of mutated genes that did not exist in SARS.

Instead the coronavirus has 'cleavage sites' similar to those in HIV and Ebola, which carry viral proteins that are dormant and have to be 'cut' to be activated.

HIV and Ebola target an enzyme called furin, which is responsible for cutting and activating these proteins when they enter the body.

The viruses trick furin so it activates them and causes a 'direct fusion' between the virus and the human cells. COVID-19 binds to cells in a similar way, the scientists found.

It seems like they are hitting it with antiviral agents but not actually killing it. Is it hiding and re-emerges? Or does it mutate to get stronger as a result of the treatment?

[Wounded Bear]

3. Be careful of hype like this...

It may be more infectious, but so far, it is not as fatal.

[Roland99]

4. "Could". Or it might not

[berni_mccoy]

8. It is already been declared more lethal than SARS

[dawg day]

9. Lethality too-- 5 of the cruise liners passengers have died:

At least 5 Diamond Princess passengers have died- out of about 700 infected. So that's, what? getting close to a 1% death rate.

[sarisataka]

12. That rate is about 1/10th

The death rate of SARS.

[sarisataka]

13. I guess I will go home and hang myself

And just get it over with...

Oh wait, the words 'could be' were dropped from the headline. Maybe I won't panic just yet.

[TwilightZone]

15. "could be"

Yes, that's been happening with a lot of threads on this topic. Context and accuracy are apparently lost arts. A story on the college student confirmed to have it was turned into something like "virus invades college campuses".