Since theSARS - CoV-2strain of coronavirus that causes COVID-19 first began to circularise at the end of 2019 , there has been much debate as to how its symptoms and efficacy at go around compared to previous outbreaks such as flu , the common cold , and historic coronaviruses such as SARS and MERS . For a short while many were falsely claim that the death charge per unit and symptom likened theCOVID-19 disease to flu , a serious assumption that led to misplace self-satisfaction and was not supported by the mount grounds for SARS - CoV-2 ’s unbelievable ability to pass around . It ’s since been more accurately compare to the historic coronaviruses , SARS and MERS .

SARS ( severe acute respiratory syndrome ) first come out in the other 2000s . Similarly to COVID-19 , it ’s a coronavirus of zoonotic origin meaning it spread from animals . It ’s believed to have pass from shoe bat to civets before being transmitted by humans . We now acknowledge , after unaired review of the novel SARS - CoV-2 pathogen , that it shares many physical properties with SARS , hence its name . Being members of the coronavirus family , both pathogen possessspike proteins , which is how the invasive coronavirus cell are able-bodied to assail human cell . SARS - CoV-2 is also thought to have add up from bats , with one of the most extremely suspected intermediaries currently beingpangolins , themost traffic animal in the world .

Despite the two pathogen ' similarity , they are not comport in the same way as we compare the current outbreak of COVID-19 to that of the SARS irruption in 2002 - 2003 . A recent and very elaborated Twitter thread fromPeter Kolchinksy , virologist and author ofThe Great American Drug Deal , gives an in - depth account as to why the SARS - CoV-2 pathogen is a " nastier " computer virus than that which caused SARS . The answers uncover why adhering tophysical ( social ) distancingguidelines is so essential in halt the spread of this deadly pathogen .

For elucidation , in the tweets , Kolchinsky relate to the original SARS coronavirus as SARS-1 and the COVID-19 coronavirus as SARS-2 .

For those skim reading , this is the crux of the differences in the two pathogens : how they evidence and spread out , and why the SARS-1 virus was eventually stanch .

He also offer up some reassurances from what we ’ve found out about the new coronavirus so far .

The silent brooding period of COVID-19 means that healthy people can be saunter about getting on with their daily lives having dead no idea that they are disperse the pathogen as they go . While you might only suffermild symptom , or feel no symptoms at all , the further you move , the more hoi polloi you verbalise to , andinanimate objects you tinge , the higher the chance you have of occur it on to someone who will suffer severe disease .

Perhaps if you have friends who are n’t quite grasping the consequences , the above account involving door and doorknobs might help them to infer .