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Legal Advice:

What do we call it?

“Coronavirus” – This is literally the most generic term of any used. It refers to any of a group of RNA viruses that cause a variety of diseases in humans and other animals. However, people know what you mean if you use this broad term- the current deadly strain currently impacting the world, “Covid-19.”

“Wuhan virus” or “Wuhan coronavirus” – This was the initial, informal name based on geographic origin and proximity. The World Health Organization states, “under agreed lines between the WHO, the World Organization for Animal Health, and the Food and Agriculture Organization… we had to find a name that did not refer to a geographical location, an animal, an individual, or group of people, and which is also pronounceable and related to the disease.” It is a health issue more than a political one.

“China coronavirus” -This was the secondary, informal name based on geographic origin and proximity. The World Health Organization states, “under agreed lines between the WHO, the World Organization for Animal Health, and the Food and Agriculture Organization… we had to find a name that did not refer to a geographical location, an animal, an individual, or group of people, and which is also pronounceable and related to the disease.” It is a health issue more than a political one.

SARS-CoV-2 – This is the name of the virus that causes the disease. It was named by the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses. The “SARS” part of the name stands for, “Severe acute respiratory syndrome.”“Co” refers to corona, “V” to virus. So one tests positive for SARS-CoV-2, not Covid-19, as it’s the virus and not the disease that does the infecting. The World Heath Organization states that it steers clear of using the name SARS-CoV-2 because “using the name SARS can have unintended consequences in terms of creating unnecessary fear for some populations, especially in Asia which was worst affected by the SARS outbreak in 2003.” The WHO added that, “under agreed lines between the WHO, the World Organization for Animal Health, and the Food and Agriculture Organization… we had to find a name that did not refer to a geographical location, an animal, an individual, or group of people, and which is also pronounceable and related to the disease.”

For edification, SARS-Cov-1, was the virus which occurred in 2002 and 2003, also began in China and ended with 774 deaths in 17 countries. The genetic material in the current virus is an 82 percent match for the earlier SARS virus.

“Covid-19” – This is the popular name. It refers to the specific disease caused by SARS-CoV-2. “Co” refers to corona, “vi” to virus, and “d” to disease. 19 refers to 2019, the year it was discovered.

“2019-nCoV” – This is fundamentally the same thing as “Covid-19.” “Co” refers to corona, “V” to virus. “n” refers to novel, or new. 2019 is the year it was discovered.

Where did it come from?

In December 2019, an outbreak of an unknown coronavirus began circulating in Wuhan, China. Early on during the outbreak, scientists noted that patients at the epicenter of the outbreak in Wuhan, China, had a connection to a large seafood and live animal market, suggesting animal-to-human transmission of the virus.

On February 26, 2020, a Perspectives piece was published in the New England Journal of Medicine. In the piece, David M. Morens, M.D. and Peter Daszak, Ph.D. from the National Institute of Health (NIH) and Jeffery K. Taubenberger, M.D., Ph.D. wrote: “Of course, scientists tell us that SARS-CoV-2 did not escape from a jar: RNA sequences closely resemble those of viruses that silently circulate in bats, and epidemiological information implicates a bat-origin virus infecting unidentified animal species sold in China’s live-animal markets.”

The analysis of public genome sequence data from SARS-CoV-2 and related viruses found no evidence that the virus was made in a laboratory or otherwise engineered.

Why is it so prevalent?

People recall two prior pandemics- SARS and the one causing Middle East respiratory syndrome, or MERS. They were statistically more lethal, but the current virus is more transmissible, lodging in the upper respiratory tract, the nose and throat, where it is easily expelled by a cough. Another characteristic accelerating transmission is that an infected person can be contagious several days before any symptoms show up.

The SARS-Cov-2 virus has 29,891 nucleotides. That’s twice as large as an influenza virus genome. What’s more, the coronavirus family undergoes relatively rapid genetic “recombination” in nature, including mutations that enable the virus to adapt to new hosts and environmental niches.

It spreads fast to other people, spreads fast inside people and our healthcare systems just weren’t ready for anything like it.

Due to the difficulty of navigating the aforementioned issues that will or may arise, combined with the ever changing rules relating the Courts, the necessity to hire expert legal counsel to navigate you through these waters and the necessity to stay calm and attempt to be as reasonable and rational as possible is important.


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