What is Coronavirus: Definition and 47 Discussions

Coronaviruses are a group of related RNA viruses that cause diseases in mammals and birds. In humans and birds, they cause respiratory tract infections that can range from mild to lethal. Mild illnesses in humans include some cases of the common cold (which is also caused by other viruses, predominantly rhinoviruses), while more lethal varieties can cause SARS, MERS, and COVID-19. In cows and pigs they cause diarrhea, while in mice they cause hepatitis and encephalomyelitis.
Coronaviruses constitute the subfamily Orthocoronavirinae, in the family Coronaviridae, order Nidovirales, and realm Riboviria. They are enveloped viruses with a positive-sense single-stranded RNA genome and a nucleocapsid of helical symmetry. The genome size of coronaviruses ranges from approximately 26 to 32 kilobases, one of the largest among RNA viruses. They have characteristic club-shaped spikes that project from their surface, which in electron micrographs create an image reminiscent of the solar corona, from which their name derives.

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  1. V

    Question about paper 10 January: Cross-reactive memory....SARS-CoV-2....

    Hello everyone, I'm a physicist so I'm not an expert in immunology etc., but I'm interested in this topic. I read the abstract of this paper (Discussion was very scholarly for me) but still, I'm not sure if I understand it correctly. So I have some questions: 1) Is there exist some possibility...
  2. T

    COVID Early Wuhan Coronavirus: 3 Extra Mutations Discovered

    The early partial sequences were posted to National Institutes of Health in March 2020, and removed at the request of the submitting investigator in June 2020. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/23/science/coronavirus-sequences.html [edit:]Which is a rewrite of...
  3. Astronuc

    Messenger RNA (mRNA) - not just for Coronavirus vaccines

    https://www.technologyreview.com/2021/02/05/1017366/messenger-rna-vaccines-covid-hiv/ I would expect Katalin Karikó and Drew Weissman to be awarded the Noble Prize in Physiology or Medicine. The technology may be applied to other viruses.
  4. S

    Face shield bleach disinfection

    Faceshield or respirators are getting to be as common as masks in public. What kind of bleach in basin can theoretically kill the Covid virus? What should be the concentration of bleach and now does it kill it?
  5. BillTre

    How Will Different Industries Respond to Coronavirus?

    What kinds of efforts will different facets of the economy take to carry on with their activities while control viral spread? How effective will they be? Different kinds of activities will require different approaches. One example is the film/entertainment industry. Here is a NY Times article...
  6. ZapperZ

    Medical Using Far-UVC Light To Kill Airborne Human Coronaviruses

    I know that there are at least a couple of threads related to COVID-19 scattered over PF, but I want to get a specific feedback on this latest research in terms of human health and safety. This paper was published in Nature, and it presented a rather fascinating result if it is true. The...
  7. Andrew Mason

    COVID Remdesivir - a possible treatment for COVID-19?

    For anyone following Remdesivir as a treatment for COVID 19: this New England Journal of Medicine report on Gilead's remdesivir and this NIH/NCBI article explain how it works. The NIH paper has a nice chart showing how different drugs might interfere with viral replication. The recent phase 3...
  8. R

    Teaching science (high school and seniors) post coronavirus

    With social distancing likely to be still important for the foreseeable future, some schools are planning how to manage this in the new school year when students return. I spoke to one school manager this week who suggests students will work 'shifts' - in this case one week in school, one week...
  9. hagopbul

    Medical Question about a biosensor for decting coronavirus in saliva or in blood

    hello all : there was this technology that i read about maybe a year ago, could it help in better technology fast and reliable method to detect corona virus in saliva or in blood ? http://web.mit.edu/degenlab/index.html http://web.mit.edu/degenlab/degenlab_techniques.html...
  10. J

    Coronavirus reported cases/deaths pattern (why fewer on weekends?)

    Maybe this is a dumb question, but why are there fewer reported Covid-19 cases and deaths on weekends?
  11. jim mcnamara

    COVID Covid-19 in nursing homes- fatalities seem high

    https://www.kob.com/albuquerque-news/nmdoh-nearly-50-nursing-home-patients-have-died-from-covid-19-in-new-mexico/5715015/ New Mexico(USA) as of 29 April had 48 deaths out of 166 positive tests. All were nursing home patients, and a majority of the fatalities are clustered in two nursing home...
  12. neilparker62

    COVID Is low dose radiation therapy a potential treatment for COVID-19?

    https://www.thegreenjournal.com/article/S0167-8140(20)30185-7/fulltext What's the relevant science here ? Would just like to hear a bit more as to whether it holds out any meaningful prospects for treatment of Covid 19.
  13. Evo

    There's "no evidence" coronavirus survivors can't be reinfected, WHO

    I know Dr Fauci said that the virus might mutate by September and that we are likely to see another round of the virus then (if we have a reprieve in the summer). But I've been reading that they don't know if people that have had the virus are immune for weeks, or months. It's not very...
  14. hagopbul

    Factors That May Influence Susceptibility to SARS-Cov-2: A Statistical Analysis

    Hello all: Hope all are fine and well , there is this question in relation to corona virus problem : Do anyone checked if the patients have any immunity related illnesses with the patients of SARS-Cov-2 Where I can find those statistics Best regards Stay safe
  15. Evo

    Federal Doctor Says He Was Removed For Resisting Unproven Coronavirus

    This thread meets the GD guidelines for discussing medical policy where politics are concerned, I know, I made that policy. How can we expect to find cures/vaccines when the doctors capable of doing it are removed...
  16. P

    Coronaviruses in Malayan pangolins

    " Here, we report the identification of SARS-CoV-2-related coronaviruses in Malayan pangolins (Manis javanica) seized in anti-smuggling operations in southern China. " How is it that Malayan pangolins would be tested at all for the China Virus? Is it common practice to examine any smuggled...
  17. scottdave

    IBM's Supercomputer Takes on Coronavirus

    I saw a link to this article, after reading about IBM's effort to provide COBOL training to assist some of the country's ailing government computers. I was impressed by the specs of this supercomputer. It makes the Wargames computer look like a toaster...
  18. GiriBang

    Quarantine takes toll on alcoholics

    Summary:: Seriousness of withdrawal symptoms Since, the people who went to buy alcohol didn't follow social distancing, all the bars were shut down. As a result, many committed suicide, some started brewing alcohols illegally, some like this v...
  19. Andrew Mason

    Testing a population for Coronavirus - Minimizing the number of tests

    Germany has been virus testing in groups of 10. In a high risk population where p=1/100 this requires, on average, 196 tests to test 1000 people. In a moderate risk population, it requires 109 tests to test 1000 people. But if they were to test in groups of 32 in such a population one would...
  20. BillTre

    John Prine dies from Coronavirus at 73

    John Prine died today at 73 from Coronavirus. He wrote a bunch of great songs, such as:
  21. Jarvis323

    Misc. Unsuitable Materials for DIY Coronavirus Masks

    As you all know, everyone is in a mad DIY mask rush right now as it has become an official recommendation. Some have been searching for the best materials, and some of them have been found to be great filters. However, these non-standard mask materials are also not tested and evaluated for use...
  22. P

    Is the Coronavirus Primarily a Human Virus?

    I keep wondering why we do not know more about the virus? How hard is it to expose some mice to Coronavirus and see what happens? Then I considered that perhaps the virus is primarily a human virus and does not effect other life forms like lab mice. There have been cases with dogs and the...
  23. T

    Medical ‘Possible Achilles heel’ in the coronavirus

    The folks at Scripps Institute and at The University of Hong Kong have found an antibody target on SARS-CoV-2 similar to the one on SARS-CoV (the 2002 SARS outbreak). They are looking for recovered COVID-19 volunteers, see bottom of this post or the San Diego Union article. The full article in...
  24. T

    Better seismometry, Quiet Earth, Thanks Coronavirus

    https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-00965-x?utm_source=twt_nnc&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=naturenews&sf232171849=1 Cheers, Tom
  25. hagopbul

    COVID Covid-19 Fatal Effects: Pneumonia Types Explored

    Hello all: hope you are all well . as i am looking into reasons of death from Covid-19 i could see that pneumonia , is a major reason of death , but what kind of pneumonia ? i couldn't find on the internet is it only viral pneumonia or mix of types ? Best Hagop
  26. .Scott

    COVID COVID ARDS Diagnostic Tool - Age is not best indicator. N=53

    An article published Monday in "Computers, Materials, & Continua" identifies leading indicators of which patients will go on to develop ARDS (acute respiratory distress syndrome). From the abstract: Among the features identified as possible indicators: A pdf of the full article can be...
  27. B

    Is hydrogen peroxide effective against the corona virus?

    If oxygen is effective against bacteria virus and cancer why isn't it used against coved-19? DMSO is known to bond with certain substances and could carry HP into the blood stream and kill off COVID-19.
  28. jim mcnamara

    Policy for pandemic issues and how models shape it

    https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/03/mathematics-life-and-death-how-disease-models-shape-national-shutdowns-and-other This shows how policy can be informed about differing effects of control policies in different environments. One of the bleak aspects of UK choices is shown as a graph...
  29. The Coronavirus Curve Simulation - Numberphile

    The Coronavirus Curve Simulation - Numberphile

    Ben Sparks uses https://www.GeoGebra.org to explain (and code) the so-called SIR Model being used to predict the spread of cornavirus (COVID-19). A pretty cool way to visualize a set of differential equations.
    • scottdave
    • Media item
    • Coronavirus Differential eqautions Numerical analysis
    • Comments: 1
    • Category: Differential Equations
  30. JD_PM

    COVID Are hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin the key against COVID-19?

    Hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin have been reported (By SEOM, Sociedad Española de Oncología Médica, by US President and others) to be a promising combination to treat COVID-19. A study leaded by French doctor Didier Raoult has yielded the following results: Why could such a combination...
  31. berkeman

    COVID Innovations to help COVID-19 treatment efforts

    I didn't see a thread so far in the Medical forum that addressed the specific innovations that are being worked on to help combat this pandemic, so I thought I'd start this thread. There is a thread about trying to use a single ventilator to serve multiple critical Patients (Pts) in ICU, but...
  32. berkeman

    Connecting 2-4 Patients to the Same Ventilator

    How does this work? Do you just parallel the tubing to the ET tubes? Or is there more to it? Seems like a risky move, but in these times, it may be necessary... https://abc7news.com/new-york-to-allow-hospitals-to-treat-two-patients-with-one-ventilator/6052788/ From the link in the article...
  33. S

    COVID Covid-19 Prevention/Mitigation

    The goal is to 'flatten the curve' in terms the spread of Covid-19/corona virus. Hence, what about recommending effective gargling (3 times or more daily) with an anti-septic like Cepacol or Listerine (alcohol version) and going to the source of the problem, which is the throat/oro-pharynx? The...
  34. nomadreid

    Johns Hopkins Global Security Index

    I emphasize that I am not posing a rhetorical question, and am not trying to make a political statement (and would ask all respondents to steer clear of politics), but would genuinely appreciate knowing whether the report in question is considered valid by those in the field who are impartial...
  35. Grinkle

    COVID Effectiveness of early COVID-19 treatments

    Do we have data to give any perspective on these questions regarding COVID-19 victims - If a patient is deemed to need a respirator, what is the expected morbidity for them at that time if they are put on a respirator? I assume that without a respirator, the morbidity is close to 100%. Is...
  36. K

    Coronavirus death toll estimations

    I was looking for projections on how many will die from the new virus. Unfortunately I found only this site https://www.vox.com/2020/3/5/21165973/coronavirus-death-rate-explained but it is outdated as you can see. Perhaps it is because I'm not in the US? So that makes Google hide me a lot of...
  37. M

    Did any novels predict the effects of COVID-19?

    I've read number of virus disaster novels, but I can't recall any of them predicting anything like what's actually going on now. Anybody know of novels where the author predicted details such as a moderately lethal virus - so not end of the world stuff - leading to lock down and governments...
  38. Lnewqban

    What is a clinical ventilator?

    My apologies if already posted here or somewhere else. These articles are about what a clinical ventilator is, what problems improper use can cause and what parts are some people creating by 3-D printing: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ventilator https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bag_valve_mask...
  39. scottdave

    B Using a logarithmic scale to represent COVID-19 growth

    The author, John Burn-Murdoch, shows here ( https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1237748598051409921.html ) how the logarithmic scale can give a better "sense" of what is happening. In linear scales, some countries' data is squashed to almost nonexistent, while others explode out of control. I...
  40. jim mcnamara

    Coronavirus infection rate + outcomes -versus bloodtypes

    https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/3075567/people-blood-type-may-be-more-vulnerable-coronavirus-china-study This is a news report on a Chinese study, not a journal article Type O population of confirmed patients were disproportionately less like to die and less likely to become...
  41. BWV

    COVID >47% false positive rate on COVID-19 test?

    interesting: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32133832?fbclid=IwAR3KtTRFTp9eb0aA-8ThVONEMGeGhecOnjMJtIblbClp8ufahx71HOFSWdg Objective: As the prevention and control of COVID-19continues to advance, the active nucleic acid test screening in the close contacts of the patients has been...
  42. A

    COVID Covid-19 virus disinfectant question -- Any aerosol options?

    I have a question both with regards to the current virus as well as to other potential diseases that are carried around in aerosol form, I have seen that commonly all hand sanitizers or sanitizers in general that use substances that are safe to humans use alcohol in some form. So I would presume...
  43. L

    Medical What makes the current coronavirus different from the others?

    An interview on NPR with virologists discussed the reasons that this current viral pandemic is different than others in the past. Key differences were: - Ability to make new viruses - apparently 1000 times more prolific than flu. - Unlike flu viruses, it does not appear to mutate because it...
  44. vela

    Quickly Transitioning to Teaching Online Due to COVID-19

    There's a good chance that the spread of the COVID-19 virus will cause colleges and universities to suspend on-ground class meetings. I know that UC Berkeley and UCLA have already done so to some degree, and the schools I teach at have suggested instructors prepare the possibility by getting...
  45. robphy

    2020 APS March Meeting (in Denver) canceled

    https://march.aps.org/
  46. hagopbul

    COVID About the protein shape of Covid-19

    hello i came across an old article about crystalline shape of AEC2 receptor that is been some how associated with covid-19 my question dose knowing the crystalline profile of protein receptors some how can help with finding a better aid against this kind of outbreaks and how crystalline...
  47. BWV

    COVID COVID-19 Coronavirus Containment Efforts

    <mentor - moved to general discussion> Wondering if the containment attempts are failing and this will be a world-wide pandemic. To put this in perspective, flu has something like a 0.5% mortality rate and this Coronavirus is 2-3% (far less than SARS or MERS) so in the US 80,000 people died of...
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