Why is the Coronavirus pandemic so dangerous?
WHO declared the ongoing coronavirus crisis as a pandemic on March 12. Ever since, the disease outbreak has gone on to claim over 45,000 lives and affected over 114 countries, with a sharp incline in cases from certain countries.
While this is not the first pandemic witnessed by mankind, it is by large, one of the scariest ones for one too many reasons. We list out a few reasons:
It's a novel coronavirus
The 2019 coronavirus belongs to the family of viruses which have resulted in deadly infections, including Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERSA) and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) in the past. However, it's the first such strain of the virus which has affected the population at a large scale across the globe.
There is a bigger risk as to why we need to fight collectively against COVID-19. The scale of infections are largely based on projections, meaning that nobody is really prepared to deal with a pandemic on such large scale. We don't yet know how many people will be impacted or how many will lose their lives. The only possible thing to do is to avoid risk and break the chain.
The infection rate is quite high
Unlike any of the previously impacting pandemics, coronavirus is spreading at an alarmingly high rate. It is highly infectious and has become an acute crisis to be dealt with.
Many stay asymptomatic for a while
One of the biggest problems which have caused cities across the world to shut down is that many people can continue to be asymptomatic (not show infection) and still be contagious, implying that people can continue making others infected even if they do not show base level symptoms. Plus, the incubation time of the virus is also long (between 5-14 days), making the detection time all the more prolonged. Plus, with fewer tests and symptoms resembling that of a simple cold, it is only adding to the crisis at hand.
There is no herd immunity
As with past pandemics, the chances of herd immunity, i.e. a section of the population gaining immunity from the said infection or disease due to past vaccination has not been seen so far with coronavirus. COVID-19 can affect anyone, of any age or healthy immunity, although it carries a higher risk for people suffering from underlying medical conditions. As novel coronavirus is a fairly new infection, there is no vaccine developed yet, making it all the more dangerous.
Social media has a bigger role to play now
Although social media is a boon for all of us, it is particularly giving rise to the spread of fake news and hoaxes,in a crisis situation like this. Misinformation and panic is spreading more rampantly, making the infection all the more scary. Hence, it has time and again being stressed that people should verify the facts and simply not fall for any claim you find on social media to beat coronavirus.