Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 or SARS-CoV 2: the name of the virus responsible for the disease COVID-19 (Coronavirus disease 2019). A disease that brought the world to its knees.
SARS-COV2 falls in the family Coronavirides (order Nidevirales) which have a crown(club-shaped spikes) like appearance on the surface; it creates an image similar to the solar corona. Hence the name coronavirus (corona in Latin means crown).
Thin section electron microscopic image of SARS-CoV-2, the causative agent of COVID-19. Credits: Public Health Image Library CDCThis illustration, created at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), reveals ultrastructural morphology exhibited by coronaviruses. Note the spikes that adorn the outer surface of the virus, which impart the look of a corona surrounding the virion, when viewed electron microscopically.Credits: Public Health Image Library CDC
The family Coronavirides is further divided into 4 genuses: alpha, beta, gamma and delta (In these 4 genuses there are 7 HCOV or Human coronaviruses. Well, we are not going to dive into details of that).
The beta coronaviruses are divided into 3 Lineages: A, B and C. SARS-COV 2 falls in Lineage B and it has a basic reproduction number of 2-3 which means a person infected with COVID-19 will on average infect 2-3 people. So, it’s obvious that is not going to disappear like SARS-MERS which has basic reproduction numbers of 0.7 (perhaps, that’s why SARS-MERS disappeared on its own).
Did I forget to mention that it is the same family of virus the causes common-cold? And despite having all the modern health facilities and research we do not have any cure for the common cold. There are over 160 strains for the common cold which makes it difficult to develop any miracle medicine or vaccine.
However, this is not the case with SARS-COV2. We have the vaccine and fortunately, it is effective against all the variants so far but what if the new strains/variants of COVID-19 are more frequent and on those strains or variants the vaccine doesn’t work? What is the covid-19 is here to stay like flu? What if covid-19 becomes an endemic instead of a pandemic?
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