Coronavirus (COVID-19) Discussion Thread

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haxxiy said:
Did you folks know that the 1889 flu pandemic is often theorized to have been caused by the animal-to-human leap of the OC43 betacoronavirus? It was an unusual "flu" with the elderly being severely affected but the children were spared, and neurological symptoms were common in addition to respiratory ones in serious cases.

If that was indeed the case, it makes sense to theorize the HKU1 betacoronavirus could also have provoked a pandemic back when it leaped, although that is believed to have happened over a thousand years before OC43 going by calibrated biological clock estimates, and it does make you wonder if SARS-2 will eventually follow the same pattern.

Well, pandemic viruses do tend to become milder over time and eventually become an endemic illness; the viral subtypes responsible for all three flu pandemics of the 20th century, Spanish Flu, (H1N1) Hong Kong Flu, (H3N2) and Asian Flu (H2N2) all still circulate today.

On the other hand, hopefully COVID-19 will be more like smallpox or polio where vaccination can eliminate it.