Why this coronavirus is extremely virulent: Understanding 'virus shedding' and why blithe disregard for social distancing is exceedingly dangerous

LURKING DANGER: German researchers found very high levels of the COVID-19 virus emitted from the throat of patients from the earliest point in the illness — when people are generally still going about their daily routines. Understanding this mechanism of attack by the deadly virus, alongside the introduction of a vaccine or therapy against it (all still in development stages) would give a significant push to the global drive in curbing its spread.

SARS CRISIS. In November 2002, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) rampaged through 17 countries, infecting over 8,000 people and killing nearly 800. Experts said it was just a hint of what this latest COVID-19 could do. As early as March 1, 2020, Prof Gabriel Leung, dean of the University of Hong Kong’s (HKU) medical faculty, has called the coronavirus epidemic a global “pandemic”, as it has spread quickly across several countries. The first wave of outbreak outside China was “just starting” then. https://bit.ly/3djxCUB

WAY MORE DANGEROUS THAN SARS: The 2019-nCoV, the virus that causes COVID-19 diseases, is sufficiently divergent from SARS-CoV to be considered a new human-infecting carrier.

Sources: https://bit.ly/2Up12b3 https://bit.ly/3bg6Dam

People who contract COVID-19 emit high amounts of the virus very early on — in the first 5 days — in their infection, a study (pre-print, not peer-reviewed) from Germany suggests.

IMPORTANT DETAIL: Here's an important detail from the German team's research findings: Viral shedding significantly dropped after Day 5 in all but 2 of the patients, who had more serious illness.

KEY POINT: With COVID-19, shedding from the upper airways (upper respiratory tract) early in infection makes for a virus that is much harder to contain.Experts say understanding the differences in the pattern of virus shedding holds the KEY.

FACT: The SARS outbreak was contained after about 8,000 cases; the global count of confirmed COVID-19 cases has already topped 267,000, with more than 11,000 deaths, and cases spreading in 184 countries (March 22, 2020).

Ref: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XUI6DIswmFk&app=desktop [from 11.00]

https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/medicine-and-dentistry/virus-shedding

Source: https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/69/wr/mm6912e2.htm