Origins of Coronavirus

If you are afraid of coronavirus and think it's like the end of the world, you are just being a part of yet another global conspiracy theory. Relax! This virus is not as deadly as you may think it is. Let's see some verifiable statistics. Up to the second of March, there have been 89,091 cases of novel coronavirus. 3,057 people infected with this virus have died. This is 3.43% mortality rate. On the other hand, 45,156 people have recovered. That is slightly more than 50% recovery rate. It means half of the patients not only survive this disease, they also overcome it. So, why are you being paranoid? No Mexican beer gives you coronavirus.

The four countries that are actually fighting madly with this disease are China, South Korea, Italy and Iran. 89% of total patients live in China and more than half of them have recovered. Did you know that one million people every year die from malaria? Malaria! Dengue is more dangerous than that, for God's sake! But some 22,000 die of severe dengue annually. These deaths from malaria occur in Africa, the Dark continent. No pun intended! That's why we, the people living in the, quotation mark, First World, aren't really afraid of malaria. Every year, more than 50,000 deaths are reported from a disease as minor as flu. You think bats or pigs are dangerous because they have coronavirus? First, if you thought bats or pigs caused corona, you might be thinking about, spoilers, that 2011 movie Contagion. Second, each year, some 81 to 138 thousand people die just from snake bites. So, again, why are y'all being so freaking paranoid?! 

Now, let's move to a series of questions I have found on the website of European Center for Disease Prevention and Control. They have answered some very basic questions regarding coronavirus.

SARS outbreak

We have learnt that coronaviruses or CoV are a family of viruses which are zoonotic which means humans get them from animals. These viruses affect your respiratory system and make it hard for you to breath. SARS and MERS were also two different types of coronaviruses. MERS-Cov or Middle Eastern Respiratory Syndrome took the world by surprise in 2012 and it was transmitted to humans by camels was its patient zero was a Saudi Arabian. SARS-Cov or Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome has a story similar to what we are watching now. Moving from cats to humans, its outbreak started in November 2002 in the Chinese province of Guangdong. It lasted until 2004. Then, as the medical experts are proud to announce, it was limited to the laboratories. 

So, just like SARS and MERS, the type of coronavirus we are facing is just another form of CoV that was never seen in humans before. Let's christen this virus properly first. It was initially named 2019 novel coronavirus. Its outbreak started by the end of 2019 in Wuhan province of Chinese. And it was never predicted by Dean Koontz! Now, this new type of virus has been named SARS-CoV-2 when it was discovered that it is similar to SARS. But that is just the name of the virus. The name of the disease that you get if you fall prey to SARS-CoV-2 is COVID-19. 

Now, it hasn't been proven yet which damned animal caused it but we have suspicions on bats! Again, this is just speculations. So, stop trying to believe in everything Contagion showed you although, let me confess, the entire movie was scientifically accurate and quite spectacular. 

Now, as we have maintained that novel coronavirus outbreak is similar to SARS epidemic, let me reveal one more crucial piece of information. The mortality rate of novel coronavirus was 10%.

Common signs of infection include respiratory symptoms, fever, cough, shortness of breath, breathing difficulties, pain in the muscles and tiredness. In more severe cases, infection can cause  pneumonia, severe acute respiratory syndrome, kidney failure and even death. Standard recommendations to prevent infection spread include regular hand washing, covering mouth and nose when coughing and sneezing, thoroughly cooking meat and eggs. Avoid close contact with anyone showing symptoms of respiratory illness such as coughing and sneezing.

The incubation period for the virus is 2 to 14 days. Elderly people or people already suffering from some chronic ailment are more likely to catch and die from coronavirus. By the way, the word corona means crown in Latin. 

OK, I am ready to move to the actual problem associated with novel coronavirus. The conspiracy theories regarding its origins and prevention. If you have watched Contagion - and I hope many of you would watch it now - there is a guy in the movie, an Internet personality, who believes that the governments of the world have the cure to the Chinese virus but they are not telling us the truth. Then he claims that there is a homeopathic solution of the virus in forsythia, some sort of olive plant. After learning this, people start storming pharmacies to find forsythia even when scientists prove by experimentation that forsythia doesn't treat the Chinese virus. Just like that, people right now have started believing in stupid Facebook things regarding cure for novel coronavirus. If you think you can prevent coronavirus by keeping your throat moist, avoiding spicy stuff or loading up on Vitamin C, this is bullshit, my amigos. The Facebook post that started this rumor and was shared 16,000 times is unreliable. 

Deserted streets of Wuhan, China after a quarantine was imposed due to COVID-19 outbreak

What you should actually do to prevent coronavirus, according to the teachings of the almighty WHO, is: wash your hands, you lazy-ass, don't cough/sneeze without covering your face, cook your food well and, if a person shows symptoms of coronavirus, stay the hell away from that guy! 

Now, the latest rubbish I have heard about novel coronavirus is that this entire epidemic was planned. Oh my God! This is the bullshittest bullshit I have ever heard in my life. Let's see what this creationist theory is about coronavirus. In 2015, a certain Pirbright Institute of Surrey, England filed a patent for their planned invention. It was a vaccine to treat patients of respiratory disorders. They wanted to create this vaccination from a weakened version of coronavirus. Anyone who has studied basic biology knows how vaccines work. If you don't know how vaccines work, learn it on YouTube. Who needs to go to college when we have YouTube!

The person who first used this patent to create a conspiracy theory around Pirbright and novel coronavirus was this idiot: Jordan Sather. 

Because Bill Gates and his wife have donated to this institute, Sather postulated like a douche-bag he is that novel coronavirus was invented by the rich people, transported to China and used to destroy the Chinese economy. There was a report on BBC by the end of January where they debunked Santher's theory and explained that Pirbright guys were trying to use avian infectious bronchitis virus to make their vaccines. The report also makes it clear that Gates Foundation didn't fund Pirbright's vaccination project. Buzz Feed News reported that avian infectious bronchitis virus only affects birds and not humans. 

Well, that was it. Take care, guys!