COVID-19: A Look Back at the Past Year in America

The coronavirus that spread around the world in 2020 killing nearly 2 million people first appeared in China in late 2019 and was named Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2, or SARS-CoV-2 for short.  It gives people a disease named Corona Disease 2019, or COVID-19 for short.

2020 was a "normal" year for just a few short weeks.  Then came with reports of a viral outbreak in China that had apparently started in November 2019 and was overwhelming hospitals.  Many Americans were quick to point out the problem was confined to China and there were no cases reported in any other countries around the world.  Even as the virus spread to other nations many Americans on social media were pointing out the United States had zero cases.  Within a matter of days, on January 20, the United States had a confirmed case (officially reported January 21): a 35-year old healthy male non-smoker in Washington state.  Still in denial, many people continued to point out the United States had zero fatalities as if that meant we were immune from disease and did not need to take precautions, but less than 2 weeks later Americans started dying. To this day, COVID-19 continues to claim lives and the death toll has exceeded half of a million Americans.

The first American fatality was a California resident who died from COVID-19 on February 6, 2020.  A few days the death toll doubled, and a few days later it re-doubled, and then doubled again.  Less than three weeks later the State of Washington alone was reporting 37 fatalities due to the new Coronavirus COVID-19.  A health care worker who flew from Washington to New York is believed to have spread the disease from coast-to-coast.  Another healthcare worker who flew from New York to Costa Rica is believed to have introduced the virus there.  As the disease spread locally and people continued to travel nationally and internationally for holidays and business as usual, COVID-19 quickly spread throughout the United States and the globe taking lives everywhere.

By the end of just one year, the death toll from COVID-19 surpassed 500,000 in United States and 1.9 million globally.

COVID-19 has only been in existence a very short time.  Until November 2019 it simply didn't exist.  In fact, coronaviruses as a class were only first identified in the 1960s.  Over time researchers discovered hundreds of viruses which under a powerful microscope displayed a corona of spikes, but prior to the year 2002 there were only three coronaviruses that could infect humans.  These were named 229E, NL63, and OC43.  All three had relatively mild consequences and were generally considered non-life threatening.  Between 2002 and 2019 four new coronaviruses have emerged that can infect humans, and they all have severe consequences.  These are named SARS (2002), HKU1 (2004), MERS (2012), and SARS-CoV-2 (2019).  There actually isn't one named COVID-19: that's the name of a disease you get from SARS-CoV-2.

It is rather amazing to think there were no lethal coronaviruses capable of infecting humans just 20 years ago.  Something has changed.  For the entire history of mankind there were only three coronavirus known to be capable of infecting humans, and with rather mild consequences.  Now, within the past 20 years there four new coronaviruses and they all have deadly consequences.  How?  Why?

As of March 15, 2021 the death toll from COVID-19 stands at 2.66 million globally with 535,000 in the United States alone.  

The United States, where a large percentage of citizens refused to take precautions like wearing masks or social distancing, has suffered a disproportionately high number of cases and fatalities.  India has four times the population of the United States, but the United States has three times the number of deaths.  In other words, people in the United States are 12 times more likely to die from COVID-19 than people in India.  In fact, the Indian death rate is 116 per million where the American death rate is 1,622 per million.  Staggering when you factor in population density (India has several cities much larger than America's largest) and quality of living (India has millions of citizens without electricity, access to clean water, paved roads, while America claims to have the best medical system in the world).  Apparently, COVID-19 doesn't care. 

References:

·        Naming the coronavirus disease: https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019/technical-guidance/naming-the-coronavirus-disease-(covid-2019)-and-the-virus-that-causes-it

·        First US Case: https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2001191

·        Coronaviruses: https://www.ucsf.edu/news/2020/01/416511/mysterious-coronavirus-spreads-infectious-disease-expert-explains-what-you

·        Deaths per Capita: https://www.statista.com/statistics/1104709/coronavirus-deaths-worldwide-per-million-inhabitants/

·        Live Map: https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html

 

 

Coronavirus (CoV) is a large family of viruses that cause illness ranging from the common cold to more severe diseases.  The name coronavirus comes from its appearance under a microscope.  It has one strip of RNA surrounded by a membrane studded with spikes of proteins with club shaped heads.  This gives the appearance of a crown.  The Latin word for crown is “corona”.  Hence the term "coronavirus".

Humans are subject to a small number (7) of zoonotic coronaviruses; zoonotic means transmittable between animals and people. 

·        All coronaviruses that infect humans are zoonotic: they originate in animals where they mutate into a form compatible with humans.

·        Not all coronaviruses are zoonotic: there are hundreds of coronaviruses in animals that cannot spread to humans.

·        Not all zoonotic diseases are coronaviruses: Influenza, HIV, and Ebola are examples of zoonotic diseases that are not coronaviruses.

Throughout history only seven coronaviruses are known to have infected humans, with four occurring in the last 18 years: SARS from 2002 to 2004, HKU1 from 2004 to 2016, MERS from late 2012 to present, and CoVID-19 from late 2019 to present.  All known coronaviruses that have infected humans were mutated in two different animals and could not be transmitted to humans by the first animal: SARS first mutated in bats and then civets, and MERS first mutated in bats and then camels.  CoVID-19's origin is still under investigation, but it is thought to have originated in bats and spread to a pangolin where it mutated into a human transmittable virus.

The complete list of human transmittable coronaviruses is:

1.      229E is an alpha coronavirus with respiratory tract infections.

2.      NL63 is an alpha coronavirus with respiratory tract infections.

3.      OC43 is a beta coronavirus with respiratory tract infections.

4.      HKU1 is a beta coronavirus with respiratory tract infections and pneumonia.

5.      MERS-CoV is a beta coronavirus that causes MERS, severe acute respiratory syndrome.

6.      SARS-CoV is a beta coronavirus that causes SARS, severe acute respiratory syndrome.

7.      SARS-CoV-2 is a beta coronavirus that causes COVID-19, severe acute respiratory syndrome.

According to the CDC, "People around the world commonly get infected with human coronaviruses 229E, NL63, OC43, and HKU1."  These four coronaviruses typically cause mild infections.  The other three coronaviruses are less common, but can outbreak and spread rapidly with severe infections.

Common signs of coronaviruses infection include respiratory symptoms, fever, cough, shortness of breath and breathing difficulties.  In more severe cases, infection can cause pneumonia, severe acute respiratory syndrome, kidney failure and even death.