As of September 2021 there have been more than 4.5 million deaths associated with Covid19 around the
world. With over 650,000 deaths in the United States. Hey everyone I'm Dr. Seema Yasmin. I'm a
doctor and a medical journalist at the Stanford Center for Health Education. I know there are a ton
of questions out there about Covid-19, so today we're going back to basics to talk about what
exactly are respiratory viruses, what are coronaviruses, and how do these bugs even spread.
So let's ask that first question: What are respiratory viruses? These are viruses that infect
the organs that we use to breathe, including our upper respiratory tract, and that includes the nose,
mouth, and throat. And the lower respiratory tract, which includes organs like the trachea,
and the lungs. So these viruses that we're talking about when they settle in the upper respiratory
tract they cause infections similar to what we think of when you think about the common cold.
They lead to symptoms such as a runny nose, nasal congestion, and sneezing, as well as,
mucus production. The most common causes of these upper respiratory tracts infections are usually
rhinoviruses. When viruses cause lower respiratory tract infections that's when you can get the more
serious symptoms things like shortness of breath, coughing, and wheezing. There's another respiratory
virus, flu, which is a common cause of these types of infections especially during the winter. So what
exactly are coronaviruses? These are a group of viruses that can cause upper respiratory tract
infections in people and lower respiratory tract infections too. The current pandemic is caused by
one type of coronavirus. You may have heard that name Sars-Cov-2 and it leads to the disease that
we now call Covid-19. So when we're describing the virus that causes Covid we use that term Sars-Cov-2.
When we're describing the disease you get from the virus we use the term Covid-19. Sars itself stands
for Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome and the Cov part of the virus's name stands for coronavirus.
The number two refers to the type of coronavirus responsible for the pandemic that we're currently
in. If you can remember back to 2002/ 2003 there was an outbreak of cells caused by a virus called Sars-
Cov-1. So in case you're wondering if both outbreaks were caused by the same coronavirus,
there's a slight difference between them. Back in that earlier coronavirus pandemic in 2002 about
8,000 people across 29 countries were infected with Sars-Cov-1 and just under 800 of them died.
The early Sars outbreak the one caused by Sars-Cov-1 spread a lot more slowly than the
pandemic we're in that's caused by Sars- Cov-2. There were some other differences as well, back
then, international stakeholders worked together to quickly contain that virus through swift protocol.
Changes including contact tracing and 10-day quarantines. While the virus that causes Covid-19 is
also a coronavirus, it has slightly different ways of making you sick and it spreads a lot quicker
than that older coronavirus. There's also the fact that the current virus that's being spread in the
pandemic can spread from people who are infected but feel completely fine and don't realize they're
contagious. This is partly why it's been so much more difficult to contain the pandemic.
Speaking of this pandemic, you might be still having questions about how it began.
Scientists and governments around the world are trying to figure this out, they're trying to figure
out the exact source of Sars-Cov-2. We know the first reported cases of Covid-19 were reported
in very early December in 2019 in Wuhan, China and it's thought that Sars -Cov-2 may have originated
in bats and after some mutations, meaning there were changes in the virus's genetic code,
the virus then began to infect humans. It's thought that Sars-Cov-2 mutated quickly
and possibly within live animal food markets in Wuhan. This theory makes sense because viruses
that grow in crowded spaces have an easier time spreading from one animal to another and they
have plenty of opportunities to evolve. Mutations which can help the viruses develop better ways
of infecting humans. How do Coronaviruses make us sick? Sars-Cov-2 attaches to these spiky
surface proteins that coat the outside of our cells and they actually like a specific receptor
called Ace-2 and you can think of a receptor as a doorway or an entry point into your cells.
Once inside your cells, the virus hijacks your own cellular machinery to make more copies of itself,
and then about two to three days later that's when you can start to develop symptoms.
Symptoms, as well as your ability to spread the virus to others declines over the next
10 days and we know a lot more now about how the coronavirus spreads from one person to another.
It spreads through respiratory droplets and aerosols that we generate when we breathe, we talk,
we laugh, all of those kinds of things. A person can get infected when they inhale someone else's
respiratory droplets when those droplets contain the virus. They can also get infected, and this is a
much less common way of getting infected, but it's possible to pick up the infection from touching a
surface on which the virus landed and then you touch that and then directly touch your mouth,
nose, or eyes, and this is why regular hand washing is so important. The risk of Sars-Cov-2 infection
does depend on the amount of virus you get exposed to. The greater the amount of virus
you're exposed to, the greater your risk of getting infected but the risk of infection decreases
as the distance from an infected person increases. So overall your highest chance of getting infected
is when you are indoors with a bunch of people. You're close together, you're not wearing masks,
there's poor ventilation, and you're there for longer than 15 minutes. And also research
tells us that increased exhalation to save an infected person is exercising or singing
that increases the risk of spreading the virus. So that's why when it comes to prevention there's
good hand hygiene, physical distancing, masking, and getting vaccinated those are the things that
prevent the spread of the virus. So what about kids and covid-19? Are children at risk of contracting it?
Well kids are a lot less likely to get very sick with Covid-19, but they can definitely pick up the
virus that causes the disease and they can of course spread coronaviruses including Sars-Cov-2
to other people. Most children who've gotten Covid have either had no symptoms or really mild
symptoms like a low-grade fever, tiredness, and cough. But it is possible even though it's rare
for a kid to develop very severe complications of Covid. For example some kids have become very ill
with a condition that's called multi-system inflammatory syndrome in children or MIS-C
and this can cause life-threatening complications in the heart and other organs in the body. We think
this happens because a child's immune system can have a massive over-reaction to the virus.
Finally, how many people at this point have contracted the new coronavirus as of September 2021?
219 million people around the world have contracted Covid-19. More than a third of the
world's population has been fully vaccinated but we need many more to get the vaccine so we can
stop millions from becoming infected. That's all from me today links for more information can be
found below and I really hope this helps you better understand some more information about
symptoms, prevention, and what to do if you are infected with the virus that can cause Covid-19.