Render of 2019-nCoV virion
Real-time Confirmed Case Tracker by Johns Hopkins CSSE
The following information is from the CDC:
https://www.pharmacoengineering.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/s41579-018-0118-9.pdf
An article of potential interest is located here:The coronavirus’ genome
Specific genome information can be found here.
The Coronavirus Genome Structure and Replication article can be found below:
An article entitled, “A pneumonia outbreak associated with a new coronavirus of probable bat origin” (Accelerated Article Preview – likely in its penultimate form) is as follows:
https://www.pharmacoengineering.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/s41586-020-2012-7_reference.pdf
Over the weekend of January 11-12, the Chinese authorities shared the full sequence of the coronavirus genome, as detected in samples taken from the first patients. “Sequencing the genome of pathogens is crucial for the development of specific diagnostic tests and the identification of potential treatment options,” explains Sylvie van der Werf, Director of the National Reference Center (CNR) for Respiratory Viruses at the Institut Pasteur.
The illness was first reported to the World Health Organization on New Year’s Eve and in the intervening weeks was linked to a family of viruses known as coronaviruses, the same family responsible for the diseases SARS and MERS, as well as some cases of the common cold. On Feb. 11, the WHO and other organizations agreed on the name COVID-19 for the illness.
New cases in China’s Hubei province have now declined on subsequent days, according to Chinese media service CGTN.
A special WHO committee declared a public health emergency of international concern on Jan. 30, citing “the potential for the virus to spread to countries with weaker health systems.” Human-to-human transmission has been confirmed outside China, including in the US, and authorities around the world have limited travel and enforced quarantines to guard against the spread.
What is the virus causing the illness in Wuhan?
It is a member of the coronavirus family that has never been encountered before. Like other coronaviruses, it has come from animals. Many of those initially infected either worked or frequently shopped in the Huanan seafood wholesale market in the centre of the Chinese city, which also sold live and newly slaughtered animals.
Have there been other coronaviruses?
New and troubling viruses usually originate in animal hosts. Ebola and flu are other examples, and severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars) and Middle Eastern respiratory syndrome (Mers) are both caused by coronaviruses that came from animals. In 2002, Sars spread virtually unchecked to 37 countries, causing global panic, infecting more than 8,000 people and killing more than 750. Mers appears to be less easily passed from human to human, but has greater lethality, killing 35% of about 2,500 people who have been infected.
What are the symptoms caused by the Wuhan coronavirus?
The virus causes pneumonia. Those who have fallen ill are reported to suffer coughs, fever and breathing difficulties. In severe cases there can be organ failure. As this is viral pneumonia, antibiotics are of no use. The antiviral drugs we have against flu will not work. If people are admitted to hospital, they may get support for their lungs and other organs as well as fluids. Recovery will depend on the strength of their immune system. Many of those who have died were already in poor health.
Is the virus being transmitted from one person to another?
China’s national health commission has confirmed human-to-human transmission, and there have been such transmissions elsewhere. As of 11 February, deaths in China stand at 1,016, with 42,638 confirmed infections. There are confirmed cases in 28 other countries, with deaths recorded in one case in Hong Kong, and one case in Philippines.
The number of people to have contracted the virus overall could be far higher, as people with mild symptoms may not have been detected. Modelling by World Health Organization (WHO) experts at Imperial College London suggests there could be as many as 100,000 cases, with uncertainty putting the margins between 30,000 and 200,000.
The number of confirmed cases of coronavirus in the UK has doubled from four to eight after four more people in Brighton were diagnosed with the infection over the weekend. One of the men is a doctor who was part of a group that were skiing in the resort near Chamonix with the man who is at the centre of the Brighton outbreak.
One of the other four confirmed cases is being treated at the HCID unit at the Royal Free hospital in north London and the two Chinese nationals who tested positive for Coronavirus in York are being treated at the HCID centre in Newcastle.
How is the coronavirus spread?
- The Wuhan coronavirus outbreak is a new illness and scientists are still assessing how it spreads from person to person, but similar viruses tend to spread via cough and sneeze droplets.
- When an infected person coughs or sneezes, they release droplets of saliva or mucus. These droplets can fall on people in the vicinity and can be either directly inhaled or picked up on the hands then transferred when someone touches their face, causing infection. For flu, some hospital guidelines define exposure as being within six feet of an infected person who sneezes or coughs for 10 minutes or longer.
- Viruses can also be spread through droplets landing on surfaces such as seats on buses or trains or desks in school. However, whether this is a main transmission route depends on how long viruses survive on surfaces – this can vary from hours to months.
- There is anecdotal evidence that the virus can be spread by people before they have symptoms. Some other illnesses such as flu can be passed from one person to another before symptoms occur – but the extent to which this is happening with the Wuhan coronavirus is not well understood yet.
- Wash your hands: wet your hands with clean, running water and apply soap. Lather your hands, including the backs, between your fingers, and under your nails and scrub for at least 20 seconds. Rinse.
- Cover your mouth and nose with a tissue when you cough or sneeze, then throw the tissue in the bin and wash your hands. If you do not have a tissue to hand, cough or sneeze into your elbow rather than your hands.
- Face masks offer some protection as they block liquid droplets. However, they do not block smaller aerosol particles that can pass through the material of the mask. The masks also leave the eyes exposed and there is evidence that some viruses can infect a person through the eyes.
- Seek early medical help if you have a fever, cough and difficulty breathing, and share your travel history with healthcare providers.
- If visiting live markets in affected areas avoid direct, unprotected contact with live animals and surfaces that have been in contact with animals.
- If you are in an affected area avoid eating raw or undercooked animal products and exercise care when handling raw meat, milk or animal organs to avoid cross-contamination with uncooked foods.
- If you have returned from an affected area in China in the last two weeks, stay indoors and avoid contact with other people for 14 days. This means not going to work, school or public areas.
- If you have returned from an infected area and develop a high temperature, cough, runny nose, sore throat or difficulty breathing do not leave your home until you have been given advice by a doctor.
Why is this worse than normal influenza, and how worried are the experts?
We don’t yet know how dangerous the new coronavirus is, and we won’t know until more data comes in. The mortality rate is around 2%. However, this is likely to be an overestimate since many more people are likely to have been infected by the virus but not suffered severe enough symptoms to attend hospital, and so have not been counted. For comparison, seasonal flu typically has a mortality rate below 1% and is thought to cause about 400,000 deaths each year globally. Sars had a death rate of more than 10%.
Another key unknown, of which scientists should get a clearer idea in the coming weeks, is how contagious the coronavirus is. A crucial difference is that unlike flu, there is no vaccine for the new coronavirus, which means it is more difficult for vulnerable members of the population – elderly people or those with existing respiratory or immune problems – to protect themselves. Hand-washing and avoiding other people if you feel unwell are important. One sensible step is to get the flu vaccine, which will reduce the burden on health services if the outbreak turns into a wider epidemic.
Should I go to the doctor if I have a cough?
Anyone who has travelled to the UK from mainland China, Thailand, Japan, Republic of Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia or Macau in the last two weeks and is experiencing cough or fever or shortness of breath should stay indoors and call NHS 111, even if symptoms are mild, the NHS advises.
Should we panic?
No. The spread of the virus outside China is worrying but not an unexpected development. The WHO has declared the outbreak to be a public health emergency of international concern, and says there is a “window of opportunity” to halt the spread of the disease. The key issues are how transmissible this new coronavirus is between people and what proportion become severely ill and end up in hospital. Often viruses that spread easily tend to have a milder impact.
Healthcare workers could be at risk if they unexpectedly came across someone with respiratory symptoms who had travelled to an affected region. Generally, the coronavirus appears to be hitting older people hardest, with few cases in children.
The coronavirus and the stock market
CNN
https://www.cnn.com/2020/02/26/politics/trump-coronavirus-stock-market/index.html
Market Watch
Washington Post
Investors
BBC
https://www.bbc.com/news/business-51624003
President Trump’s statement to U.S. on February 26, 2020 (by NPR: remember they are generally pro- democratic so please excuse the rhetoric as I prefer a neutral tone)
Updated at 7:30 p.m. ET
Hours after the White House rejected the idea of appointing a coronavirus czar, President Trump on Wednesday put Vice President Mike Pence in charge of the administration’s coronavirus response.
“We’re doing really well, and Mike is going to be in charge,” Trump said, noting Pence’s experience as governor of Indiana made him adept at working with state and local health authorities.
“This is not a czar,” he said.
Trump said he would add a specialist from the State Department to the White House team, though he did not immediately name that person.
“We’re ready to adapt and ready to do whatever we have to as the disease spreads, if it spreads,” he said.
Trump said he would work with Congress on funding. His administration has asked for $2.5 billion, but he said lawmakers appear amenable to offering much more money.
“Congress is making it very easy. … It wasn’t very easy for the wall but we got that one done,” he said.
Trump, who has come under mounting criticism for the government’s handling of the respiratory virus outbreak, emphasized that the “regular flu” kills many more people each year, and that the risk of contracting coronavirus remains low.
Pence listed the various steps to contain the novel virus implemented by the White House in recent months, including travel restrictions, quarantine measures and assembling of a coronavirus task force “that has been meeting every day.”
“As a former governor of the state with the first MERS case, I know full well the importance of presidential leadership and administration leadership and the vital role” of state and local agencies, Pence said, referring to the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome.
Despite stepped-up warnings from health officials that an outbreak is imminent in the U.S. and despite the recent sell-off on Wall Street in reaction to the global epidemic, the president has continued to project unwavering optimism that the country remains safe.
“USA in great shape!” he wrote in a Wednesday tweet. “By the way, we have not had one death. Let’s keep it that way!”
Trump’s tweets came hours before officials disclosed a 60th case of the COVID-19 disease in the United States. That number includes 42 people who were quarantined and repatriated after traveling on the Diamond Princess cruise ship in Japan.
Trump also lashed out at news outlets, saying, “Low Ratings Fake News MSDNC (Comcast) &@CNN are doing everything possible to make the Caronavirus look as bad as possible, including panicking markets, if possible.”
The comments followed a dispatch the previous day from India, where he was visiting, in which he declared that the recent Wall Street panic would soon correct itself. “I think that’s a problem that’s going to go away,” he told reporters.
But the president’s messaging contradicts sobering information relayed to the public by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s leading health officials.
“It’s not so much a question of if this will happen anymore, but more really a question of when it will happen — and how many people in this country will have severe illness,” Dr. Nancy Messonnier of the CDC told reporters during a briefing on Tuesday.
“We are asking the American public to work with us to prepare with the expectation that this could be bad,” Messonnier added.
She suggested that officials in the U.S. will likely be forced to implement many of the same preventive steps other countries have taken to contain the spread of the virus. Americans should anticipate the cancellations of public gatherings, travel restrictions, school closures and workplace shutdowns.
Epidemic versus pandemic
Epidemic: An outbreak of disease that attacks many peoples at about the same time and may spread through one or several communities. Pandemic: When an epidemic spreads throughout the world. Infectious diseases: Diseases that you can catch. They are communicable.