There has been some confusion about coronavirus, coronaviruses and Covid-19 on the main thread in This and That so I thought I would try to clarify here as far as I understand and have been able to glean from reading. I'm posting it here so it doesn't get lost, as there is understandably a lot of varied chat about the whole situation on multiple threads in that section.
On the scientific/medical thread in this section I linked to a really helpful website which explained all of this, so do have a look at this.
https://coronavirusexplained.ukri.org/en/I will quote relevant extracts in the next post on this thread.
What is coronavirus and what is Covid-19In a nutshell ? this virus is called ?Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (or SARS-CoV-2 for short) to distinguish it from the first SARS virus.
The illness it causes has been named Covid-19 . However both the illness and the virus are widely referred to by the general public, politicians, organisations and in the media as ?Coronavirus?.
All the data, stats, tests and everything that is being talked about at the moment refers to the current outbreak of Covid-19 caused by SARS-CoV-2. When they say "coronavirus" they all mean either the specific virus SAR-CoV-2 or Covid-19 or both. None of the discussion in the media, Public Health England, NHS, Dept of Health nor reports of illnesses, tests or cases refer to the coronaviruses that cause colds ? except when the discussion is for example about the biological properties of coronaviruses as a group and then it is obvious from the context.
What are the tests and what do the daily data show?There are two types of tests ? the first tests people who have got the virus. This is the one where swabs are taken from the nose and throat. All the daily data (and cumulative totals) of numbers of cases are as a result of this test and currently is biased towards hospital admissions although is now (slowly) moving to test NHS frontline staff. The data may underestimate the actual number of cases by a factor of 10 due to the very low numbers of tests being undertaken. Most who are self-isolating with Covid-19 symptoms do not know whether or not they have the disease, but if it's in the last 4 weeks and especially eg in a hot-spot eg London, Hampshire, the Midlands etc ? then it is likely.
The second test is the antibody test which tests if someone has had the disease but will not show up until some days after infection - this is the immune response. This test would be really usefully so that people who have had the disease (even if mildly) would know and also epidemiologists can track the spread and incidence of the disease. As far as I understand it there are tests but not specific to SARS-CoV-2 as yet widely available.
It is the antibody test that was widely publicised a week or so ago - that Government had bought 3.5 million tests and these could be done at home ? though not sure whether this option would be available to the general public? These tests are now being validated to see how accurate and reliable they are ? so this needs large numbers of people who have been known to have had the disease, to be tested for antibodies through these new rapid tests. If they turn out to be accurate then they will be rolled out (although not sure quite how?)
Brief explanation of the two tests here:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-51943612I hope this is helpful and will clear up some of the conufsion and please put me right if I've got anything wrong!
Hurdity x