COVID-19 is the problem we are facing now, but scientists have identified more than 1,400 coronavirus in animals, and any one of them has the capability to jump from animal to human at any given time. We should be thankful that

1) COVID-19 is orders of magnitude less deadly than MERS and SARS.

2) It's R naught is only about 3, by contrast, the R naught of measles is about 18.

3) It takes a while to incubate. MERS and SARS stopped pretty quickly because it killed people so fast they didn't have time to pass it on.

It's not too hard to imagine that the next coronavirus to jump from animal to human could have the deadliness of MERS and SARS, the R naught of measles, and having the same incubation period as COVID-19. It would make the Spanish Flu of 1918 look like a walk in the park, and could very easily kill between 1 and 2 billion people. A virus like that can write it's own science fiction novel, but lurking out there might be a virus that is no longer science fiction. A virus like that could become the next dominant life form on planet earth, replacing humans, and that thought is scary as hell.

Last edited by danarhea; 06/20/20 09:49 AM.