Coronavirus: Your Questions Answered

What is a coronavirus?

Coronaviruses are a family of viruses that cause illnesses which range from small colds to severe diseases. There are 4 types of Common Coronaviruses which produce mild symptoms such as a runny nose and sore throat and 3 other main human coronaviruses: MERS-CoV (Middle East Respiratory Syndrome), SARS-CoV (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) and SARS-CoV-2.

What are the uncommon coronaviruses from?

The reason the coronaviruses spread is that they are zoonotic. This means that they are passed around through animals and humans. SARS-CoV was said to have originated in bats before spreading to civet cats and later humans. MERS-CoV was passed to humans through Dromedary Camels in 2012. As for the current coronavirus, a group of people who went to the Wuhan Seafood and Live Animal Market developed Pneumonia from an unknown food they ate and then passed it on to close family and friends. As the Pneumonia was passed around, other viruses were added forming a new and unknown virus.

Some believe COVID-19 was passed on by fish in a store in Wuhan while others think it was from Chinese Kraits and cobras. Neither of these theories have been backed up by scientific evidence.

The actual name?

The World Health Organisation has named the virus SARS-CoV-2 and the disease it causes, COVID-19. CO stands for Corona, VI is for Virus, D for Disease and -19 signifies that it was discovered in 2019.

Stigmatism

Due to the origin of the disease in China, many Chinese Australians have found themselves facing a wave of racist behaviours stemming from a lack of understanding of the disease. A Harvey Norman store in Western Australia displayed a sign that stated, "No coronavirus in our mattresses because ours are Australian made." This caused a lot of customers to complain about the sign being both xenophobic and racist. There has also been a spike in racism towards medical professionals.

The Chief Health Officer in Australia, Brendan Murphy, said "It's about where you've been not who you are and, there's no reason to avoid public places or wear face masks in Australia. Plus 5 of the 15 cases known in Australia have already recovered."

In conclusion:

So far there have been approximately 84,000 cases and 2,900 deaths. Of the 40,000 closed COVID-19 cases, 7% have died while the other 93% have fully recovered. There have been 25 confirmed cases in Australia.

For more information, visit https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus for statistics or https://www.health.gov.au/health-topics/novel-coronavirus-2019-ncov for general information.