The Basics

3 min readMar 30, 2020

In December 2019, a cluster of patients with pneumonia of unknown cause was linked to a seafood wholesale market in Wuhan, China.
-New England Journal of Medicine 2/20/2020¹

SARS-COV2 (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2)²

The virus was temporarily named 2019-nCoV (2019- Novel CoronaVirus) until the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV) officially changed the name to SARS-COV2 on Feb. 11, 2020 due to its genetic similarity to the 2003 SARS virus (SARS-COV1).

COVID-19 (Coronavirus Disease 2019)

On the same day the virus was named, the ICTV named the disease caused by SARS-COV2 as COVID-19. In the news and other communications, the virus name and disease name are often used interchangeably, which sometimes causes confusion.

Coronavirus³

SARS-COV2 comes from the Coronavirus family (Coronaviridae). Other famous members of this family include the SARS virus (SARS-COV1)of 2003 and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS-CoV) of 2012. However, more commonly, human coronaviruses are known for causing the common cold along with rhinoviruses⁴.

The Spread⁵

On Dec. 8, China first noticed a pneumonia of unknown cause. By Dec 30, China reported 27 cases to the WHO and a month later the WHO declared a public health emergency of international concern with 7,736 cases in China and 82 outside China. Another month and a half later, the WHO deemed COVID-19 a pandemic with over 118,000 cases worldwide.⁶ Compare this to SARS which was first reported to the WHO at 300 cases and declared fully contained 5 months later at only 8,096 cases worldwide.

The Concern

Like SARS-COV1, the current SARS-COV2 has mutated in a way which allows it to travel past the nose and mouth into the lungs, causing pneumonia and more severe symptoms. The current virus has also managed to infect the digestive system, though the prevalence and implications of GI symptoms are debated⁷. Unlike SARS-COV1, the current virus has spread faster than doctors and scientists have been able to study it, leaving the world unable to protect individuals through herd immunity and with a new pathogen without adequate testing capabilities or treatments.

The Strategy

Containment seeks to stop the spread of a virus at the start of an outbreak by tracking affected individuals and cutting off paths to future spread. Mitigation occurs when the outbreak is largely considered widespread and efforts focus on decreasing transmission rate⁸. Due to the lack of testing capabilities⁹, the actual spread of the virus is uncertain. For this reason, efforts now largely focus on mitigation¹⁰, ie flattening the curve¹¹, through social distancing, stay at home orders, and other governmental and social restrictions. The actual rate of people who develop COVID-19 after SARS-CoV2 infection is uncertain, but reducing the spread of SARS-COV2 gives doctors and hospitals a fighting chance in case reality begins to reflect the worst case scenario percentages and allows time for development of effective treatments and vaccines.

If we do this right, nothing happens. Yeah. A successful shelter in place means that you’re going to feel like it was all for nothing. And you’d be right. Because nothing means that nothing happened to your family. And that’s what we’re going for here. -Dr. Emily Landon¹²

In Summary

SARS-CoV2 is a new virus from the Coronavirus family which has spread incredibly fast and can cause the severe disease COVID-19
Global testing limitations have likely under-reported the spread of the virus, so the focus now is on decreasing transmission to slow, if not stop, the spread of the virus