CDC outlines what closing schools, businesses would look like in US pandemic

Re:CDC outlines what closing schools, businesses would look ... by gbear0 on Tuesday February 25, 2020 @05:07PM (#22417993)

On the premise that this virus does become standard, I've been wondering whether post infection you have a better immunity towards other related SARS-like viruses in the future? In which case, would there potentially be a net positive if SARS-like viruses no longer have the same effect? Is it possible that this could be like getting chickenpox young and protecting you from worse things (measles as adults) in the future?

(note: I know nothing when it comes to health related issues like this so I'm assuming it's completely naive thought since I haven't seen anyone else mention anything similar)

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Re:CDC outlines what closing schools, businesses would look ... by nostrademons on Tuesday February 25, 2020 @06:03PM (#22418492)

The coronavirus family includes SARS, MERS, COVID-19, and 4 viruses that cause the common cold. Coronavirus causes about 15% of common colds per year. If you don't get SARS immunity from the coronaviruses that cause the common cold, it's unlikely that you'd get it from COVID-19.

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Re:CDC outlines what closing schools, businesses would look ... by gdubs on Tuesday February 25, 2020 @08:32PM (#22419470)

Curious, do you know how it is that a vaccine could potentially be developed for Wuhan coronavirus, whereas the common saying goes, “there’s no cure for the common cold”?

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Re:CDC outlines what closing schools, businesses would look ... by nostrademons on Tuesday February 25, 2020 @11:46PM (#22420345)

The reason there's no cure for the common cold is that the common cold is caused by ~200 different viruses. You can vaccinate against the individual viruses, which prevents infection from that particular strain only.

There are additional complications in that many cold viruses generate only partial or temporary immunity, and the immunity wears off in a couple years. Also that coronaviruses mutate fairly quickly (though not as quickly as influenza, another illness that's caused by a family of viruses rather than a single one and generates only temporary immunity). I've heard that coronaviruses are also fairly hard to develop vaccines for because of technical reasons that I don't really understand.

But if your goal is partial, temporary immunity to protect against a circulating pandemic - similar to a flu shot - it's theoretically possible. That partial, temporary immunity is why adults get fewer colds than children do - they already have immunity to many of the cold viruses circulating within the local population.

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Re:CDC outlines what closing schools, businesses would look ... by thatcat on Tuesday February 25, 2020 @11:46PM (#22420343)

The common cold is just a phrase said when you have a mild unknown respiratory infection. If you could narrow down the cause you could devise a vaccine, but you would have to find all the possible forms and then get vaccines against those also if your goal is to not get some version of the common cold.

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