4 ms·

Although they were hesitant at first, the Chinese government handled the SARS-1 outbreak differently.

by tgv 5y ago

jacquesm 5y ago
The similarities vastly outweigh the differences. The biggest difference between SARS-CoV and COVID-19 is that the latter takes a bit longer before you get ill but you are already contagious. Other than that it's mostly the same old story. Note that if not for SARS-CoV this would have been a lot more serious because that served as a dress rehearsal and put a lot of mechanisms in place as well as suggested screening for Coronaviruses in cases like these.
- baja_blast 5y ago
  Another major difference between SARS-CoV and SARS-CoV-2 is that SARS-CoV-1 took time to gain new adaptions to effectively spread between humans. These mutations that SARS-CoV-1 went through allowed researchers to find the intermediate animal host within months. With SARS-CoV-2 there was no known mutation phase where the virus rapidly gained mutations to more efficiently transmit between humans. SARS-COV2 came out the gate perfectly adapted and did not start mutating extensively until many months after it spread globally. These lack of adaptations are also the reason why it's so hard to trace back to the original intermediate host species.
  - jacquesm 5y ago
    > SARS-COV2 came out the gate perfectly adapted We actually do not know this for sure. There is a chance that the reservoir is one step removed and that another host in between amplified the virus to the point where it could make the jump. Ebola also has this property, but it is just a bit too lethal to spread far (fortunately). An Ebola with a slightly longer asymptomatic incubation time (while already shedding) would be far worse then the current versions. With Ebola each and every outbreak starts with an interspecies jump, usually bushmeat. The idea that these jumps are extremely rare is in principle incorrect, but it looks like that because pandemics are rare. But those are just the runaway successes (from the viral point of view).
- tgv 5y ago
  The comment was about the way the Chinese government (mis)handled the information sharing, etc., and hence about the possibility of a lab leak, not about the actual disease, which (IMO) is even different, as covid-19 is much, much more contagious. And if the lab leak hypothesis is true, then the first outbreak didn't serve "as a dress rehearsal", but rather as the inspiration for the current one.

Although they were hesitant at first, the Chinese government handled the SARS-1 outbreak differently.

by tgv 5y ago

Although they were hesitant at first, the Chinese government handled the SARS-1 outbreak differently.

The similarities vastly outweigh the differences. The biggest difference between SARS-CoV and COVID-19 is that the latter takes a bit longer before you get ill but you are already contagious. Other than that it's mostly the same old story. Note that if not for SARS-CoV this would have been a lot more serious because that served as a dress rehearsal and put a lot of mechanisms in place as well as suggested screening for Coronaviruses in cases like these.

baja_blast 5y ago
Another major difference between SARS-CoV and SARS-CoV-2 is that SARS-CoV-1 took time to gain new adaptions to effectively spread between humans. These mutations that SARS-CoV-1 went through allowed researchers to find the intermediate animal host within months. With SARS-CoV-2 there was no known mutation phase where the virus rapidly gained mutations to more efficiently transmit between humans. SARS-COV2 came out the gate perfectly adapted and did not start mutating extensively until many months after it spread globally. These lack of adaptations are also the reason why it's so hard to trace back to the original intermediate host species.
- jacquesm 5y ago
  > SARS-COV2 came out the gate perfectly adapted We actually do not know this for sure. There is a chance that the reservoir is one step removed and that another host in between amplified the virus to the point where it could make the jump. Ebola also has this property, but it is just a bit too lethal to spread far (fortunately). An Ebola with a slightly longer asymptomatic incubation time (while already shedding) would be far worse then the current versions. With Ebola each and every outbreak starts with an interspecies jump, usually bushmeat. The idea that these jumps are extremely rare is in principle incorrect, but it looks like that because pandemics are rare. But those are just the runaway successes (from the viral point of view).
tgv 5y ago
The comment was about the way the Chinese government (mis)handled the information sharing, etc., and hence about the possibility of a lab leak, not about the actual disease, which (IMO) is even different, as covid-19 is much, much more contagious. And if the lab leak hypothesis is true, then the first outbreak didn't serve "as a dress rehearsal", but rather as the inspiration for the current one.