3 ms·

I can't understand the amount of intrigue surrounding this. It's not some kind of mysterious alien pathogen; there are 6 other coronaviruses that infect humans,

I can't understand the amount of intrigue surrounding this. It's not some kind of mysterious alien pathogen; there are 6 other coronaviruses that infect humans, and hundreds that infect other animals. There have been numerous outbreaks in the past 20 years. They're very well researched. Still, I'm not holding my breath for a vaccine since these other diseases, like SARS and MERS, are several orders of magnitude more letha. > some significant percentage of the population is going to have a negative impact Is there any evidence at all that this is some kind of feature of this disease? It's even starting to look like most people who become infected never even develop the associated disease.

mlyle 6y ago
This causes a whole lot more people to be hospitalized with severe illness. Severe illness tends to result in morbidity even if you survive. A fair number of people with SARS-CoV-1 ended up with chronic fatigue ailments, etc, afterwards, too. We don't know, but there's almost certainly going to be more lasting morbidity from this epidemic than the common cold. If it's a little bit, it doesn't change the calculation much. If 1/4th of those hospitalized develop significant morbidity though, that sucks.
- ibejoeb 6y ago
  > This causes a whole lot more people to be hospitalized with severe illness. Sure. And the other ones kill. > If 1/4th of those hospitalized develop significant morbidity Am I wrong, or is it that the overwhelming majority of people who are hospitalized already have a comorbidity? Where does 1/4 come from? Why not 100%?