The Coronavirus Outbreak

This year is off to a great start! It's less than a month into 2020 and we already have widespread panic over an epidemic of the Coronavirus which stems from the Chinese city of Wuhan. Social media has been frenzied with news of the virus spreading throughout the world.  The death count is rising, and now with America having its first confirmed cases as of recently. It's all that's on anyone's mind.

So you might be asking yourself,”what is the coronavirus?’’ Well according to the CDC ``A novel coronavirus (nCoV) is a new coronavirus that has not been previously identified. The 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV), is not the same as the coronaviruses that commonly circulate among humans and cause mild illness, like the common cold”. The Coronavirus is a very common type of virus which affects the upper respiratory system and throat. Most types of coronavirus are relatively harmless, and show little danger to humans, there are of course some that certainly do. The virus responsible for the outbreak in Wuhan has been identified as 2019 Novel Coronavirus or 2019-nCoV for short. This latest variety of the virus has proven to be dangerous to humans with mild to severe flu-like symptoms. Symptoms can show as fever, a bad cough and if left untreated for long enough, death. 

But how truly dangerous is the Coronavirus? Well despite what many sources are saying, this virus might not be the world ending plague that  people believe it to be. As stated by LA Times writer Katherine Mason, “The coronavirus is scaring people because it is new and much is not known about it. But what we can tell so far is that this is no Ebola. Most people who contract it recover just fine”.  Many recent studies have shown that the virus is hardly deadlier than the common flu. Although the Coronavirus has given itself quite a reputation over the last few weeks, experts say it shouldn’t cause much trouble in the more developed countries which have better medical care and living conditions. When asked about their thoughts on the recent outbreak many students seem to express no real fear of the virus.  For example, student Silfredo Chavez said, “It's probably the least important thing we should be worrying about”.

So, is the Coronavirus going to end mankind; well,doubtful. This is not to say that basic precautions should be thrown out the window, but basic hand washing and hygiene measures should suffice just fine.