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Influenza is a family of related viruses. COVID-19 is actually the disease caused by the virus. SARS-CoV-2 is the actual virus, and it is only a single virus in
by jeherr 6y ago
Influenza is a family of related viruses. COVID-19 is actually the disease caused by the virus. SARS-CoV-2 is the actual virus, and it is only a single virus in the family of coronaviruses. Other coronaviruses include SARS-CoV, MERS-CoV, and a host of others which just cause a subset of the common cold.
This should be compared more to something like the H1N1 outbreak, which was a single influenza virus that was particularly deadly for some subset of people. That was just one type of influenza.
- jjcon 6y agoStupid question - why will a coronavirus vaccine take so long even when they say people are working at an incredible pace if we can produce a new flu vaccine each year? Are scientists guessing strains multiple years in advance so there is time to produce a vaccine or something?
- KaiserPro 6y agoIts not stupid. Its a new vaccine, to treat a new virus thats is in a class of virus thats never had a vaccine. if that makes any sense? the yearly flu vaccines are tweaks to an already understood vaccine, (minor releases) Sometimes there are major releases but thats for a jab that targets a different class of flu (h5n1 vs h1n2) this is an entirely new vaccine, for a virus that has never had a vaccine, so its more like a v1.0 release on a new platform.
- selectodude 6y agoThe flu vaccine is simply deactivated flu virus that is grown in eggs. The big issue here is that coronavirus is “smart” enough to not reproduce in eggs.