Many points in the article have probably been said before in bits and pieces, but Vox has brought much of what can be said about Covid-19 in one place, from what it is to what is means for everyone in the world.
From the link - 12 Things Everyone Needs To Know About The Coronavirus Pandemic:
Before December 2019, SARS-CoV-2 — the virus that causes the Covid-19 illness — was unknown to science. “A pneumonia of unknown cause” was first reported to the World Health Organization on December 31, after a slew of cases appeared in Wuhan, China. Since then, the virus has been detected in more than a million people worldwide, and killed tens of thousands.
This is a pandemic, a global crisis and tragedy on a scale that’s hard to fathom.
There are a lot of new things for the public to learn — about the virus, controlling its spread, social distancing, treating the sick, and how our governments should react to this chaotic situation. It’s like we’ve all been dropped in to study for a test in a class that no one signed up for. It’s confusing and hard to process.
Here, we’ve tried to distill it into 12 key aspects of this crisis that everyone should understand. That said, we don’t cover everything, and there’s still a lot of uncertainty about some of the most important things on the list. (If you think you have Covid-19, and are curious about what that means for you, read this explainer. If you’re most confused about the financial crisis the virus is causing, read this one.) This guide focuses mostly on the properties of the virus, and the implications for public health.
In the few months since this virus emerged, we’ve learned an immense amount about it. Scientists have decoded its genetics and whom it’s more likely to kill, and have started working on vaccines that could immunize humans to it. Still, its newness means that a lot of the figures presented in this article are estimates and subject to change as scientists learn more. So keep that in mind, too.
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