| |
The world is presently experiencing a virus pandemic -- PANDEMIC, as
in, a word I never thought I'd use in present tense in my lifetime, because
a virus that originated in bats and pangolins has made contact
with humans.
1
|
Common human coronaviruses usually cause respiratory tract illnesses, like
the common cold. Sometimes they can cause pneumonia or bronchitis. Most people
get infected with a coronavirus at some point in their lives. These illnesses
usually only last for a short period of time.
2
|
| This novel (new) coronavirus, AKA COVID-19 (because it was discovered in December 2019) and
SARS-CoV-2, first surfaced in the human population near Wuhan, China. Because humans have never
encountered this particular coronavirus before, and because it is transmitted to new human hosts
very easily thanks to the portion attributable to the pangolins, COVID-19 continues to be a very real and
serious threat to people across the globe, even at the dawn of 2022.
|
|