News Weekly -- The History of Sars-CoV-2

By Margaret Clark

Sars-CoV-2 is a new version/type of coronavirus. You might be saying causally the term coronavirus or COVID-19, but you should think deeper. COVID-19 and SARS are diseases you can get by having the established virus, coronavirus. You can also have the disease SARS by getting the virus called Sars-CoV.

Sars-Cov, coronavirus, and COVID-19 all originated in China. One of the first beings that caught COVID-19 were bats. They were then sold to people and eaten. Then coronaviruses (and the diseases that you can have from it) spread. It was first an epidemic in China but then people moved like humans always do. It spread until it was claimed as an international pandemic by the WHO (the World Health Organization). The U.S. has the most cases in the world right now, followed closely by Brazil, Russia, and Mexico. After having a good environment Asia is doing better, with China having only 8 cases on September 16th (though it is questioned how accurate this data is). Sars-CoV-2’s is different from COVID 19 because Sars-CoV-2 is the virus. COVID 19 is the disease that comes from having the virus. You could have Sars-CoV-2 and not have COVID 19.

Most viruses have envelopes, A Lipid envelope is the envelope for SARS-CoV-2. The lipid envelope is a type of virus envelope. A regular virus envelope is when the virus is inside the host and as it comes out it develops an outer layer-blanket-envelope. The lipid envelope or the CoV envelope is thinner and has less protein. Integral membrane and smaller layers of protein is part of the different CoV envelope. CoV’s lack of an envelope is promising for vaccine creators.

The U.S had a peak on July 17 with an estimated amount of 75,000 cases of COVID 19 and coronavirus. But now our cases our going down but still not enough. Different versions of the coronavirus are all acute respiratory illnesses and viruses. Coronavirus is a virus exposed to many people and animals including bats, cows, cats, dogs, etc. When the world was hit with the news that the coronavirus was back we all we're struggling. China now offers five-star “hotels” for people exposed to other people with coronavirus. We can do better. Remember to wear your masks, social distance. But we will come back. We will survive. We have done this before and we can do this again.