What You Need to Know About the Coronavirus

News about the coronavirus is spreading as fast as the disease itself. Here’s what we know so far:

What is the coronavirus?

Coronaviruses are not new. The large group of viruses, collectively called coronaviruses, are to blame for something as simple as the common cold. But the more serious MERS (Middle East Respiratory Syndrome) and SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) are also flavors of coronaviruses. What makes the current outbreak different is that it is a new strain of coronavirus—in the medical world, the virus is called “novel”—that we haven’t seen in humans before. This means we have not yet learned how it spreads, how severely it can affect the body, or how to get rid of it. 

The new strain, known as 2019-nCoV, presents with symptoms of fever, coughing, and shortness of breath that crop up within 2-14 days of exposure.

The new strain, known as 2019-nCoV, presents with symptoms of fever, coughing, and shortness of breath that crop up within 2-14 days of exposure. Scientists are not yet sure how the virus is spread, but the most likely scenario is that it is airborne and spread from sick people to healthy people. 

How fast is the coronavirus spreading?

When a new virus like 2019-nCoV is discovered, even if it belongs to a family of well-studied viruses, developing a vaccine can take years. With a fast-spreading virus, a few years is a very long time.  

China first reported several cases of pneumonia in a group of people who all had ties to the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in Wuhan, China, on December 31, 2019. Three days later, a total of 44 cases had been reported in China. Eight days later, the Chinese government identified the cause of these illnesses as the novel coronavirus 2019-nCoV. Twenty-one days later, the first confirmed case appeared in the United States—a 35-year-old man in Snohomish County, Washington, who had just returned from visiting family in Wuhan. Twenty-four days later Wuhan and its surrounding cities were put under strict quarantine. 

Developing a vaccine can take years. With a fast-spreading virus, a few years is a very long time.

Thirty days after the original outbreak report, Chinese health officials had confirmed 7,711 cases from every region in mainland China—including the latest case in Tibet—and across 15 countries. And thirty-one days after the outbreak began...

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