What are Coronaviruses?

Coronavirus is a family of common respiratory viruses. There are seven different strains of coronavirus: four of these can cause cold-like symptoms in the autumn/winter, ranging from a cough and runny nose, to flu-like body aches and fever.

There are many viruses that contribute to the yearly cold/flu season; Rhinoviruses account for 35-70% of all symptoms, while coronaviruses only account for about 12-15%.

SΑRS-1 (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome), MERS (Middle East Respiratory Syndrome) and most recently, SΑRS-2 Coνid-19 are newer coronaviruses that have emerged since about 2002, and may cause more serious illnesses.

SΑRS-1 first appeared in China in 2002 and had a fatality rate of about 9.6%. It lasted for about two years and then subsided. As it was quite an infectious virus various research laboratories around the world began to study it. During these years, the virus escaped on several occasions from several labs in China, causing flu outbreaks.

MERS was first reported in Saudi Arabia in 2012 but the fatality rate was much more deadly at 34%. MERS subsided and there have been few cases reported since the outbreak.

Coνid-19 is a different story. The actual infecting virus has been named SΑRS-2 or SΑRS-CοV-2 (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome 2) and is 80% identical to the genetic sequence of SΑRS 1. The name finally given to the “disease” is Coνid-19 (short for Cοrοna Virus Disease 2019). A recent study by the House Foreign Affairs Committee came to the conclusion that it leaked from a biological laboratory in Wuhan.¹