Covid-19: The Truth Behind The Pandemic
Note: Covid-19 is real and infectious!
Cases of the “now popular” Covid-19 first emerged in late 2019 in Wuhan, China. The earliest case was reportedly detected on 17th November 2019, a few weeks before the Chinese authorities acknowledged it in December 2019.
Covid-19 was unanimously confirmed to be caused by a new strain of coronavirus (CoV) known as “SARS-Cov-2” or “Covid-19 virus.” Coronavirus had manifested in several different strains in time past as SARS (SARS-CoV) in 2002-2003 and MERS (MERS-CoV) in 2012. Since its outbreak, the infection has spread to many countries of the world and was considered a “pandemic” by WHO – a term that has no universally agreed definition, but means that multiple countries are seeing sustained transmission between people of an outbreak causing disease or death.
It was also on the 11th of February 2019 that the World Health Organization (WHO) announced that the official name would be Covid-19, an abridged version of coronavirus disease 2019. And the WHO referred to the strain of coronavirus that causes this disease as the “Covid-19 virus.”
However, there is no formal name for the virus – the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses calls it the “severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2).” However, to avoid confusion with SARS, the virus is generally called the Covid-19 virus when communicating with the public. Early in the outbreak, the virus was called “2019-nCoV” by the WHO.
The most commonly reported symptoms of Covid-19 include fever, headache, dry cough, diarrhea, and tiredness, and in mild cases, people may get just a runny nose or a sore throat. In the most severe cases, people with the virus can develop difficulty breathing, and may ultimately experience organ failure. Some cases of Covid-19 are fatal.
More so, the virus can also be asymptomatic, causing no noticeable illness in some infected people – but these infected people are still contagious and can spread the virus.
Just like illnesses from earlier coronavirus strains, Covid-19 is a respiratory illness and is largely spread via droplets in the air. These droplets are typically expelled into the air when an infected person coughs or sneezes.
Please note that the Covid-19 virus is heavier and cannot remain in the air for a long time (just 30 minutes) or float/travel in the air for a long distance. Covid-19 can only move less than 1m before it settles on a surface, where it can be contacted – this means that you can contract the virus through inhalation or ingestion if you’re “very close” to an already-infected person or when you come in contact with “diseased surfaces” – more reason why social distancing is emphasized.
Secondly, Covid-19 is short-lived outside of its host, unlike most other viruses. Once the virus drops on the ground or any surface, it can only survive for a few days. Generally, coronaviruses can survive on surfaces for up to nine days. However, SARS-Cov-2 can survive on cardboards for about 24hrs, on copper surfaces for about four hours, and on plastic and steel for about 3 days. Also, higher temperatures “reportedly” affect the survival of the coronavirus strain (though has not been ascertained). Finally, while spraying alcohol or chlorine can kill the virus outside the body, it cannot kill the virus within the body.
Thirdly, there are presently two types of the Covid-19 virus, “Non-SARS Corvid-19 virus” and “SARS Corvid-19 virus.” Non-SARS coronavirus infections are commonly associated with acute respiratory illnesses that are usually mild and consistent with the common cold but can also result in the full range of acute respiratory illnesses including pneumonia, croup, bronchiolitis, and bronchitis.
SARS coronavirus infection nearly always results in a serious illness that requires hospitalization, often in an intensive care unit, and a high fatality rate. The severity or fatality of any Covid-19 case is partly dependent on the type of Covid-19 virus you have, with SARS Corvid-19 virus been the deadliest.
Fourthly, Covid-19 shares symptoms with other illnesses. Although Covid-19 can be mild, severe, or, in rare cases, fatal, all its symptoms are similar to that of other illnesses. For instance, a symptom of Covid-19 is fever, which is also a symptom of seasonal flu. The Covid-19 virus causes an illness that does, indeed, have flu-like symptoms, such as aches, fever, and cough. More so, both COVID-19 and flu can lead to pneumonia. Therefore, while a thermal scanner may be able to detect whether someone has a fever or not, it cannot tell whether the fever is due to Covid-19 or flu.
This is one reason why most people that claim to have or supposedly “tested positive” to Covid-19 based on a few symptoms do not “actually” have the virus.
Finally, Covid-19 has no cure. Coronaviruses are hardy organisms. They're effective at hiding from the human immune system, and we haven't developed any reliable treatments or vaccines to eradicate them. In most cases, health officials attempt to deal with the symptoms.
According to a medical practitioner, “There is no recognized therapeutic against coronaviruses. The primary objective in an outbreak related to a coronavirus is to give adequate support of care to patients, particularly in terms of respiratory support and multi-organ support.”
Also, because they are viruses, coronaviruses are not susceptible to antibiotics. Antibiotics are medicines designed to fight bacteria and do not do any damage to the SARS-CoV-2 virus. There are no specific treatments for COVID-19 as yet, though a number are in the works including experimental antivirals, which can attack the virus, and existing drugs targeted at other viruses like HIV which have shown some promise.
However, as regards whether everyone with COVID-19 will die, this statement is very untrue. Covid-19 is only fatal for a small percentage of people. In a recent report, the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention concluded that 80.9% of COVID-19 cases were mild. The WHO also reported that around 80% of people will experience a relatively mild form of the disease, which will not require specialist treatment in a hospital.
Mild symptoms of Covid-19 may include fever, cough, sore throat, tiredness, and shortness of breath and patient may recover from this illness.
More so, there have been controversies as regards the origin of the Corvid-19 virus. Some people claimed that the virus is from an animal, Pangolin to be precise while others think that it might have passed to us from bats, which was the case for SARS. This belief may seem true because Wuhan is a wild animal market. However, critics hold that Wuhan is not a new market and such disease should have broken out long before now. Either way, there is no evidence that this is the case.
Some other people believe that Covid-12 is spiritual and has to do with the wrath of God. Yet, there is no evidence that this is the case. However, a recent rumor demonstrated that Covid-19 is a bioweapon purposely designed in a lab in China to accomplish a feat. However, the scientists behind the creation of the virus may have inadvertently underestimated the impact of the virus.
Wherever Corvid-19 might have originated from, the fact remains that it is real and deadly.
What Should We Do?
Please note that SARS-CoV-2 is not the deadliest virus that people have faced. Others, such as Ebola, have higher mortality rates.
Observe the following simple measures to reduce the spread of SARS-CoV-2 and your chances of contracting Covid-19:
These tips might look simplistic, but during an epidemic or pandemic, these are the best ways to make a difference.
Note: Unless you are a health worker, caring for an infected person, or would get closer to an infected person, do not wear face masks.
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