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In March 2020, some modelling of the COVID-19 pandemic by Gupta and colleagues was released to the media. [13] Their model suggested that up to 68% of the UK population could already have been infected, suggesting broader immunity and a subsiding threat. The findings differed greatly from the work of other experts and quickly came under ...
A related coronavirus emerged in Wuhan, China, in November 2019 and spread rapidly around the world. Thought to have originated in bats and subsequently named severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2, infections with the virus cause a disease called COVID-19, that varies in severity from mild to deadly, [69] and led to a pandemic in 2020.
The name "coronavirus" is derived from Latin corona, meaning "crown" or "wreath", itself a borrowing from Greek κορώνη korṓnē, "garland, wreath". [8] [9] The name was coined by June Almeida and David Tyrrell who first observed and studied human coronaviruses. [10]
SARS stands for SARS-CoV-1 or COVID-19, variola viruses for smallpox. Basic structural characteristics, such as genome type, virion shape and replication site, generally share the same features among virus species within the same family.
Coronavirus diseases are caused by viruses in the coronavirus subfamily, a group of related RNA viruses that cause diseases in mammals and birds. In humans and birds, the group of viruses cause respiratory tract infections that can range from mild to lethal.
Coronaviridae is a family of enveloped, positive-strand RNA viruses which infect amphibians, birds, and mammals.Commonly referred to as coronaviruses in the English language, the family coronaviridae includes the subfamilies Letovirinae and Orthocoronavirinae; the latter also known as coronavirinae.
Ebright has stated that the genome and properties of SARS-CoV-2 provide no basis to conclude the virus was engineered as a bioweapon, [28] [29] but he also has stated that the possibility that the virus entered humans through a laboratory accident cannot be dismissed and has called for a thorough investigation of the origin of the pandemic and for measures to reduce the risk of future pandemics.
Scanning electron micrograph of SARS virions. Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) is the disease caused by SARS-CoV-1. It causes an often severe illness and is marked initially by systemic symptoms of muscle pain, headache, and fever, followed in 2–14 days by the onset of respiratory symptoms, [13] mainly cough, dyspnea, and pneumonia.