Denk-doch-mal-meta t1_iwqwl2j wrote on November 17, 2022 at 6:00 PM

I was really wondering why so many aspects about Corona seemed to be unknown, for example regarding seasonal effects of infections, importance of aerosols for spreading etc. - why didn't virologists worldwide didn't at least start from what was known about influenza?

haley_bridgewater t1_iwrp91w wrote on November 17, 2022 at 9:08 PM

There is still a lot unknown about SARS-CoV-2 because it is a new virus. The flu and COVID-19 have similar symptoms, but they are caused by very different viruses, meaning our immune systems respond differently. We cannot use the flu as a model for things like seasonal effects, because we have seen that COVID-19 is not as strongly linked with seasons as the Flu is. We also know that they both spread through liquid droplets, but influenza is able to spread surface to surface better than SARS-CoV-2. I wish we could use Influenza as a model for SARS-CoV-2 because it would have let us get a grasp on the disease much faster, but unfortunately they are totally different viruses and act differently.