Did you know COVID-19 is name of disease, not virus? Here are 10 facts about new coronavirus:
1. The new coronavirus is "the third spillover, in only two decades, of an animal coronavirus to humans resulting in a major epidemic,"
according to the Coronavirus Study Group, of the
International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses.
2. The International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses named the new virus
severe acute respiratory syndrome-related coronavirus 2, or
SARS-CoV-2, after determining it belonged to the same species as the virus that caused the
SARS epidemic of 2002-03,
Science reported.
3. The World Health Organization is responsible for naming the diseases caused by newly emerging viruses,
according to The Lancet. A spokesperson for WHO
told Science using the name SARS could create "unnecessary fear," so the organization was going to refer to the disease as COVID-19 and to the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which scientists are using, as the COVID-19 virus.
