Since 1992
Print and digital marketing
By Barbara McAllister
Word of the Day: COVID
We have all added this new word to our vocabulary this past year. COVID, more correctly COVID-19, has been heard at least daily for more than a year and become a word with which we are all too familiar. The word is actually an acronym. It starts with CO for corona. This descibes the appearance of the virus under an electron microscope, where the tiny virus appears to be surrounded by a halo or corona. The VI is from virus, and the D stands for disease. The full name is COVID-19 because it was identified in 2019 and was given the name by the World Health Organization for a disease caused by the new corona virus, technically identified as SARS-CoV2.
There have been seven types of human corona viruses identified. Four cause the symptoms of a common cold and three cause more serious symptoms. In 2002 it was SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome), in 2012 it was MERS (Middle Eastern Respiratory Syndrome) and 2019 brought COVID. The more serious versions of the coronavirus are zoonotic diseases, meaning they started as a disease in animals that became transmitted to humans. It is estimated that 75 percent of new diseases are zoonotic, fueled by global trade, changes to the climate and continued urbanization and the resultant encroachment on wildlife habitats. The positive news is that scientists are already getting prepared for the next global pandemic by keeping a watch on bats in Asia, mosquitoes in North America, camels in Africa (where MERS, the coronavirus deadlier than COVID-19 started), pigs in Europe, monkeys in South America and even possums in Australia. Science continues to find ways to fight emerging diseases. The next pandemic may be averted by vaccinating affected animals before they become threats to human health.
