@Bigun@libertybele@jmyrlefullerThis is indeed a corona virus, but it is not SARS, it is new.
It is a slightly mutated variant of the SARS virus.
There are many strains of coronaviruses just as there are many strains of influenza.
Some coronaviruses have been known to be circulating in humans since first identified as a distinct family of viruses in the 1960’s. Some of these coronaviruses are responsible for common colds along with rhinoviruses and other viruses – causing uncomfortable but not serious illness in most cases. There is even a coronavirus that only infects cats, IIRC.
Coronaviruses are also very prevalent in bats just as influenza viruses are prevalent in birds and in pigs or in pigs as an intermediary host before jumping to humans. It is when a disease first makes this zoonotic jump into humans and there is human to human transmission that makes it “novelâ€, meaning new and for which there is typically no prior human exposure or immunity. (With the H1N1 “Spanish†flu one of the reasons thought why it didn’t seem to impact older people was likely a similar strain of H1N1 influenza circulated in the 1870’s – that’s not to say however, that all older people were immune or that older people didn’t die).
When SARS first broke out in 2003 it was immediately apparent that while a coronavirus, this wasn’t a common cold or analogous to a flu as it had a near 10% fatality rate, but thankfully wasn’t highly contagious and was quickly contained. Scientific research showed that SARS (2003) originated in bats, jumped to civet cats and then to humans.
Similarly, MERS (Middle East Respiratory Syndrome) with its 35% mortality rate is believed to have jumped from bats to camels and then to humans.
SARS stands for Sudden Acute Respiratory Syndrome but that doesn’t mean SARS-CoV-2 (or COVID-19) is a “mutation†of the 2003 SARS. COVID-19 is believed to have originated in bats and jumped to pangolins before jumping to humans although that has not been definitely determined.
SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) simply means it is the 2nd coronavirus transmittable human to human that causes severe respiratory issues in humans, not that it is a mutation of SARS-CoV-1.
