It's like a worse version of the flu. The way that you'll die from the flu is getting a secondary pneumonia infection from Staph aureus or Steptococcus pneumonia, the virus just makes you more susceptible and weaker.

The major lethal consequence for this virus in the Coronavirus family is Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS). A strong outcome for this is we knock you out, put a tube down your throat, and have you breath via mechanical ventilator. It's intense to say the least.

Source: Medical student

If you have that ventilator, can you still die? How? Can the "respiratory distress" get worse without limit?

ECMO could be used in extreme cases, I imagine.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extracorporeal_membrane_oxygen...

The lung's capacity to take oxygen from air decreases as the infection spreads

Basically, yes - it's an upper respiratory infection. Indistinguishable from seasonal influenza or a cold, until symptoms are severe.

There may be some slight differences, but even seasonal influenza and a cold frequently present differently.

Isn’t coronavirus itself a kind of common cold?

I’ve heard that “the common cold” is actually a few completely different infections that isn’t worth strictly classifying for the most, and that coronavirus is one of them. If so, this is “a common cold” except maybe death rates are statistically higher.

Yes, coronavirus is a broad class of flus. SARS and MERS are both coronaviruses and there seems to be a lot of genetic similarity to SARS.

The flu is the influenza virus, period. The common cold is typically caused by a rhinovirus, but coronaviruses, adenoviruses, and influenza viruses can cause colds too.

But note that “the influenza virus” is a term that includes many genetically distinct mutations.

Sure, and there are around 160 known types of rhinovirus, 50 adenovirus types, and now 7 known forms of human corona viruses. Flu refers to a specific family of RNA viruses, common cold is a much more broad term.