Medicine has improved
This is definitely some good news, very good, in fact. Today’s medical and scientific fields have improved, meaning that we are much better prepared to create treatments against old and new pathogens.
“Coronaviruses have been studied by scientists for over 50 years,” Yager explains. “Extensive knowledge of the genome, structure, and infection cycle of related coronaviruses means that scientists are equipped to identify targets for antiviral drugs and proceed with the development of vaccine strategies.”
It spreads more easily than Ebola among the wider population
In 2013 and 2014, the Ebola virus spread in different parts of Africa, including Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone. But Ebola and COVID-19 are very different and can’t be compared because they spread differently, notes Brian Fink, PhD, an epidemiologist, and professor in the school of population health at the University of Toledo.
“Ebola is spread through direct contact with bodily fluids, while COVID-19 is spread through respiratory droplets,” he says. “Recent evidence suggests those droplets can survive on surfaces for days and in the air perhaps for hours.”
Therefore, the risk of exposure in the United States for Ebola was zero unless you were a health-care provider taking care of a patient. “By simply isolating and treating those patients, we could pretty much eliminate any potential threat for community spread,” Fink adds. “That is difficult to do with flu or COVID-19 outside of the social-distancing measures that are currently in place but are not uniform around the country.”
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