Coronavirus for Normals
With Spring Break approaching, I want to address the question on everyone’s mind. Yes, you are safe to crack open another Corona beer. Corona is one of my top choices for enjoying the outdoors as the weather warms up. Mexican beer is especially good mixed over ice, lime juice, hot sauce, and a splash of Worcestershire sauce in a michelada. However, I would respectfully decline the taste of a michelada given to me by someone with the new Corona Virus or any respiratory infection. I don’t want to put myself at risk by drinking from the same bottle as you. Also, you might have cooties. The beer and the virus share a similar name, but they are not related. There is a lot of misinformation about the new Coronavirus right now, including that it comes from Corona Beer. The fact is that most people don’t have a master’s degree in Public Health, and a lot of people want to know more about the possibility of a new virus sweeping the world.
You don't need a Ph.D. to understand what's happening with Coronavirus. Here’s the important stuff first. People with the new Coronavirus complain of headaches, sneezing, coughing, trouble breathing, fever, and weakness. In the most severe cases, people might have pneumonia, kidney failure, and bronchitis. Older folks and people with weak immune systems are most likely to get the most severe forms of the new Coronavirus. People with a history of asthma and COPD may also need to take extra precautions not to contract the new Coronavirus. Right now, younger people are the least likely to contract the virus and become ill. Some scientists think children might be faring better because they have some immunity to viruses like Coronavirus. Children are most likely to contract the common cold year-round. The common cold is also a coronavirus, part of a family of similar viruses with the name “corona.” Other coronaviruses include MERS and SARS.
Don’t panic if you experience any of the new Coronavirus’s symptoms. It’s more likely you’re suffering from the common cold or the flu. Right now, the virus is spreading mostly in Asian countries and some European countries, including China, South Korea, Iran, and Italy. Frequent travelers and people who’ve come in contact with Coronavirus patients are at the highest risk of infection.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is currently tracking 43 cases of the new Coronavirus in the United States. So far, there are six known deaths to the virus in America. Health workers are isolating most U.S. coronavirus, so they do not spread the disease. The virus spreads through coughing and sneezing. The virus can also live on surfaces for up to nine days. It’s essential to cover your mouth and nose with a mask if you might have Coronavirus. It’s also important to wash your hands regularly and decontaminate surfaces you might touch to be on the safe side. Healthy people are not encouraged to wear masks to protect from the Coronavirus.
Vaccines and other treatments are coming for the new Coronavirus, but they could be a long way off. The CDC is evaluating potential cures and treatments right now to make sure they are effective. It’s essential to properly test new vaccines and treatments to make sure they are safe and make sure the treatment isn’t worse than the disease. There’s no telling with a treatment or cure that might be widely available; that’s why it’s so important to wash your hands and keep everything disinfected.
The new Coronavirus goes by a lot of names, including; CoVID-19 and nCOVID. The “n” stands for novel or new. That’s because the Coronavirus is new to humans right now. It’s likely the virus existed in animals before a mutation caused the virus to jump to humans. Mutations are very common for viruses. Mistakes in how viruses reproduce cause mutations. Most of the time, a mutation causes the virus to die. But sometimes a mutation can give a virus the ability to infect a new host.
Health workers in China were the first to identify the Coronavirus on January 7th of last year (2019). The World Health Organization (WHO) was alerted to the possibility of a new infectious disease a few days later on January
31st. Since then, most cases of the virus have been in and around the city of Wuhan, China, but this year the virus is spreading rapidly beyond China’s borders and has a chance to become a full-blown pandemic with disease outbreaks in communities all around the world.
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