Why is Covid-19 so infectious?

Science & Technology Health & Diet
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I’ve not heard many outlets comment about this - but anyone else wondering why it is so infectious?

We get new cold and flu viruses every year, yet they infect a fraction of the number of people - what makes Covid-19 so much more infectious?

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In Poland we have really scary conspiracy theory about that.

Anyway here are some points:

  1. People - do I really need to explain? :smiling_imp:
  2. Again politicians - at least in Poland they could really make a huge impact on at least number of infected.
  3. Mutations - as said already most probably virus in Europe is a bit different than in China. Look that there every next day is better and they are almost done with it while still here is a huge problem.
  4. Temperature - there are some temperatures which are amazing for viruses. Look that it started around December. Pretty good time (of course depends on place).
  5. Globalization - cheap plans, planes, tourists etc.
  6. Random - there are no viruses with exactly same change for infect
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…but I wonder why does it appear to be more contagious than other viruses such as colds and flus? Assuming it behaves like other Coronaviruses.

I’ve probably had a flu once or twice in the last 10 years and a cold a handful of times (even when people nearby have had it).

Are we likely to see a dormant-like state of it? Like with HSV - which only results in symptoms when you are run down, etc? Maybe it will reach the infection rates of other viruses such as HPV. Perhaps people will carry it from a young age, but it will only create issues as they get older…

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Sorry, what? Depends on season there is about 500-1000 million people infected with colds/flus. I do not see how new virus is more contagious. People think that’s different because of media and that only shows that not only our government is not doing anything about them.

That depends on a huge number of things … for example:

  1. How had you work (i.e. how tired you are)
  2. Do you have any other health problem
  3. If you are stressed (funny media help virus, lol)
    and many, many more …

At least from what I heard it would need to mutate a lot, so mutation China → Europe would be nothing compared to things you describe. I would be worried more about economy (especially in EU) rather than such things.

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It’s also possible that we catch those but our immune systems fight them off and we don’t notice.

However:

COVID19 is 30x more deadly and almost 2x more contagious than the flu. We have no existing immunity to COVID19.

https://twitter.com/VirusesImmunity/status/1238475009712160769

This article looks really good with some good info too:

One of the few mercies during this crisis is that, by their nature, individual coronaviruses are easily destroyed. Each virus particle consists of a small set of genes, enclosed by a sphere of fatty lipid molecules, and because lipid shells are easily torn apart by soap, 20 seconds of thorough hand-washing can take one down. Lipid shells are also vulnerable to the elements; a recent study shows that the new coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, survives for no more than a day on cardboard, and about two to three days on steel and plastic. These viruses don’t endure in the world. They need bodies.

To be clear, SARS-CoV-2 is not the flu. It causes a disease with different symptoms, spreads and kills more readily, and belongs to a completely different family of viruses. This family, the coronaviruses, includes just six other members that infect humans. Four of them—OC43, HKU1, NL63, and 229E—have been gently annoying humans for more than a century, causing a third of common colds. The other two—MERS and SARS (or “SARS-classic,” as some virologists have started calling it)—both cause far more severe disease. Why was this seventh coronavirus the one to go pandemic?

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Exactly, especially if you are chilling, healthy and not in group of risk. In such case you have almost 100% of change that even if you catch new virus it would be really weak for you regardless if you notice it or not.

That’s 100% normal and btw. did you know what I said about statistics? How often you see someone dying on flu? 30 times 0 is still 0. Of course somewhere someone could … but they are really rare cases.

It’s also a new wirus which has mutated. There is not way our immune systems knows from start how to fight with it - at least fight effectively. There are stats that says how much worth is soldier comparing to police man, but if you have only one soldier and huge amount of police then sooner or later soldier would lose. That’s how it works when your immune system don’t know how to fight with it. When you get used or somebody would help with it then your chances to lose almost does not exists.

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Flu is not a coronavirus, while common Cold virus are.
This is a novel virus for humanity, only recently it made the species jump from presumably bats to humans. No one has ever encountered it yet, there is no herd immunity against it reducing its spread from person to person. It is airborne transmisible, and asymptomatic or presymptomatics can infect a large number of people without even knowing they are infected. All this can account for its high rate of contagious.

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