COVID-19 is SARS

Rather than taking the time to research the COVID-19 for themselves, far too many people are relying on media reports and politicians to give them answers. As a science fiction writer, I do a great deal of research into a whole host of subjects, since I never know where some kernel of information may take me. I have long since passed the point of surprise between what the media reports and what the truth holds.

According to numerous sources, including the WHO and the CDC, the name of the virus which has the world in a panic is called severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2, also known as SARS-CoV-2. A basic google search of SARS-CoV-2 will bring up multiple sources for you to choose from. The name of the virus can be easily verified by anyone seeking to challenge this blog.

Dr. Li of Wuhan City noticed clusters of older patients dying throughout the city. He thought it was a resurgence of SARS due to the clusters all involving older people, which is the primary casualty of SARS. When he told his colleagues, they berated him, and the police ended up forcing him to sign a paper stating that he was lying about a new outbreak of SARS.

Considering just how difficult it is to identify COVID due to a lack of symptoms in the majority of the people who become infected, SARS-CoV-2 most likely rose up in October of last year, November at the latest, but a couple of years could have easily passed with no one noticing. By the time anyone realized there had been an outbreak, the new mutation of SARS had already infected every country it was going to infect.

Many people who thought they had the flu this season actually had SARS and never even knew they had it. For about 99% of the people who contract SARS-CoV-2, there are no severe symptoms. COVID-2 and COVID-19 are from the same family and we will see the same results as the last SARS outbreak. Viruses of the same family always interact with human hosts in much the same way.

In the United States, I hear a lot of people in media and politicians call SARS-CoV-2 the coronavirus. Coronavirus is not a singular virus, but a classification for several viruses, which includes the strains of COVID. COVID-2 and COVID-19 are from the same strain, which means the same family. To say this has never happened before is to have a very short memory, since this exact same thing happened almost 20 years ago.

Being from the same family of viruses is important. Science Alert released an article recently which had some interesting insight from Ian Jones, a virologist at the University of Reading in the UK. He was quoted as saying, “In essence, it’s a version of SARS that spreads more easily but causes less damage.”

https://www.sciencealert.com/genetic-analysis-shows-wuhan-coronavirus-is-similar-to-sars

No one is arguing this current version of SARS is not contagious, but what is being argued is that extreme measures are unwarranted. Those who are susceptible to developing severe complications from the flu are the same ones who can develop severe complications from SARS. Those are the ones who should take precautions, but that is not the vast majority of the population of any given country.

When SARS hit about 20 years ago, people were scared, but they had places to go to alleviate the stress that comes from fear. People were able to go to work and focus on something not related to what was being reported. The politicians reacted more responsibly than they are today.

According to Dr. James Phillips, emergency room physician at George Washington University School of Medicine, “And, the more we learn about it, the more we see that the spread is going to be global and, for the most part, that’s OK because the data we know from China shows that roughly 98 to 99 percent of us are going to do very, very, well.”

https://www.foxnews.com/media/james-phillips-americans-must-take-responsibility-on-coronavirus

The leading physician in Kiryas Yoel, Dr. Zelenko said, “99% of you will be fine. Just wait, don’t have panic… The only people that need treatment are those that have shortness of breath, or those that are in the high-risk category (over the age of 60, people that are immuno-compromised, people with cancer, diabetes, heart disease, kidney disease, etc.”

https://www.theyeshivaworld.com/news/general/1841896/watch-this-dr-zelenko-has-message-for-99-of-people-you-gotta-relax.html

Bloomberg recently reported about a study done by Italy’s national health authorities. Italy is the country politicians and media point to as an example of what’s to come to the United States, without mentioning Italy has a much older average age of population than the United States. “More than 99% of Italy’s coronavirus fatalities were people who suffered from previous medical conditions… The average age of those who’ve died from the virus in Italy is 79.5. As of March 17, 17 people under 50 had died from the disease. All of Italy’s victims under 40 have been males with serious existing medical conditions.”

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-03-18/99-of-those-who-died-from-virus-had-other-illness-italy-says

Just because the media and politicians want people to believe this is something other than a new strain of SARS, does not make it so. The world should act much as it did 20 years ago. 99% of people who contract the version of SARS will not develop severe symptoms and not need hospitalization.

2 years ago, influenza, the flu, killed approximately 61,000 in the United States alone. Last year that number was 34,200. It won’t be for several months until we get the numbers for this flu season, but it’s expected to be 30,000.

https://www.health.com/condition/cold-flu-sinus/how-many-people-die-of-the-flu-every-year

Influenza kills about 500,000 every year in the world. The virus is highly contagious and impacts far more age ranges than SARS. For those who believe the governments are acting responsibly need to ask themselves if the governments should do the same for flu season, which happens every year?