STRANGE FACTS ABOUT COVID 19 - Part II

If you suddenly stop smelling or tasting, this is a reason to grow suspicious and take measures.

The more deadly a virus is, the worse it is spreading. By killing it's master, the virus can no longer infect others. Therefore, the virus rarely mutates into a more deadly form, it is not in its interests. 

SARS-CoV-2 is just from a different category. The virus makes it's host a spreader, but it does not appear immediately or does not appear at all, so the carrier manages to infect several more people.

On average, each carrier of a coronavirus manages y infect 2 to 4 healthy people. This number is higher than seasonal flu (1.3), but lower than the measles (12+).

Although, like any infection, the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus has the so called super spreaders - carriers that infect incomparably more people: hundreds or even thousands.

In South Korea, the virus was controlled until the number of cases reached 30. But the woman, codenamed 'Patient 31', immediately infected about 1200 people.

It turned out that she was very religious and continued visiting church, despite the cough and fever,  ignoring the orders of the Korean authorities.

Over 10 days, the number of infected in South Korea increased from 30 to 5,000.

The mortality rate from Covid 19 is still difficult to calculate with accuracy, but most studies estimate it at 1-3%.

This is about 20 times higher than seasonal flu, but falls short compared to the predecessors of the coronavirus SARS (10%) and MERS (25%).

Mortality from Covid 19 is highly dependent on the overall burden on the health care system and the rapidity of delivery medical care: in Germany it is only 0.3%, in Italy it is almost 9%.

In the age group of 70+, mortality exceeds 5%;  80+, every tenth dies of the virus.

That is why the main task of authorities around the world now is to stretch the epidemic for as long as possible, without allowing a large number of people to get Covid 19 at the same time.

(This is just for information only. Not to be used for treatment. In the case of infection of coronavirus contact the concerned health experts.)

                           ........... to be continued

KV George

kvgeorgein@gmail.com