Abstract
What is COVID-19? What are the causes, parameters, and effects of this disease? What are the short- and long-term prospects? Philippe Sansonetti, Infectious disease specialist and Chief Editor of EMBO Molecular Medicine, explains why the fate of the epidemic is in our hands.
Highlights
What is COVID-19? What are the causes, parameters, and effects of this disease? What are the shortand long-term prospects? Philippe Sansonetti, Infectious Disease Specialist and Chief Editor of EMBO Molecular Medicine, explains why the fate of the epidemic is in our hands
The COVID-19 pandemic is a plague as described by Camus; it is urgent and vital for our society to realize this
Beta-coronaviruses like SARSCoV-2 on the other hand are well adapted to their reservoir, the bat, but not to humans, which explains why human infections are so damaging
Summary
Coronaviruses are a huge family of singlestranded positive RNA viruses. Alpha-coronaviruses are endemic and infect mammals including humans and cause, for example, mild respiratory and intestinal diseases in children. Beta-coronaviruses like SARSCoV-2 (the official name of COVID-19 virus) on the other hand are well adapted to their reservoir, the bat, but not to humans, which explains why human infections are so damaging. Other members of this family, the gamma- and delta-coronaviruses infect birds and fish and, at least for the time being, have not been associated with human disease
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