The New Coronavirus

Posted by Lauren Roberts March 13, 2020

The New Coronavirus

Let’s play 20 questions. What sees no boundaries? No skin color? No differing physical features? No nationality? No politics? No law? No gender? No cultural identity? No remorse? No break in the news? No current vaccine? No virus ever seen before has affected humans in quite the same way? Has the longest RNA sequence of any known virus? Recently brought the World Health Organization to call for a public health emergency?

Novel Coronavirus COVID-19.

This unprecedented virus has frankly shocked the scientific community and the world. It’s effects are global. Disease sees no borders and the coronavirus has been one of the first viral infectious diseases without a vaccine in our modern, global economy. Coronavirus can show no symptoms for several weeks, or in healthy individuals, potentially ever, however these people can still carry and spread it. Understanding how the coronavirus came about, transferred to humans through a host species from bats to humans and how it spreads is key to debunking common misconceptions and hysteria that surround the virus right now.

Unfortunately, in recent months, there has been an increase in bias comments directed at Chinese international students. At UCSB, I’ve heard comments made while sitting in class, walking around campus and directly from my Chinese friends in terms of rude and discriminatory comments directed toward them. It is important to note that this virus is spread from zoonosis, meaning the disease jumped from another animal to humans. The current research suggests the disease was transferred from bats, to a host animal, then to humans at the Wuhan market in China. This could have happened anywhere and is not the fault of Chinese people or any cultural practice they hold. Any prejudiced remarks are absolutely not okay and should be reported at http://studentlife.sa.ucsb.edu/bias if the individual feels comfortable reporting.

These remarks and hysteria are also particularly out of place because college age students do not have a high risk of being severely physically affected by coronavirus. What we know so far, is that only about “2.3% of people infected with COVID-19 die from the virus. People who are older or have underlying health conditions seem to be most at risk of having severe disease or complications” (LiveScience). Obviously it still affects individuals emotionally and all people play a part in slowing down the spread of this disease by washing hands, staying home when sick and limiting contact with those who are sick. The scientific community from around the world is coming together to sequence the coronavirus genome to better understand the virus. The coronavirus is surely one of the most severe and transmissible virus we’ve seen, “Currently, the R0 for SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes the disease COVID-19, is estimated at about 2.2, meaning a single infected person will infect about 2.2 others, on average. By comparison, the flu has an R0 of 1.3” (LiveScience). Worse than the flu, we must all be conscious and educated on how to prevent the spread as much as possible. We must also recognize that this is a global issue, that the spread of disease is not stopped at borders, and is not “just a China problem,” as cases increase in other countries it becomes more and more apparent that this virus is an international concern. Therefore we must all come together as an international community to show support for those affected and each play an individual role in hand-washing and disease prevention.