On: Coronavirus: 'Baffling' observations from the fron...

[DanBC]

There are seven coronaviruses that infect humans.

229E, NL63, OC43, HKU1, MERS-CoV, SARS-CoV, and SARS-CoV-2.

You said "hundreds". What did you mean when you said hundreds?

[Supermancho → DanBC]

When talking about viruses, it's a little more complicated than a label. Viruses naturally differentiate in a measurable way from host to host as part of their function (hijacking the host's cells). Scientifically, viruses are lumped into common behavior and generic similarities. Many individual variations do not propagate enough to be noticed, but some do. There was quite a bit of talk from some people about the 112 strains of coronavirus, which was not constructive, but technically correct (re: https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/is-there-more-than...? etc) awhile back.

[DrJones1098 → DanBC]

I've been rate limited by the site until now.

Of the 7 strains of Coronavirus that you just listed..which of those cause respiratory illness?

[DanBC → DrJones1098]

They're all respiratory illnesses, but that doesn't mean the only affect the lungs.

MERS caused kidney failure in some patients.

[dang → DrJones1098]

We ban accounts that do personal attacks and flamewar, so please don't do those things on HN.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html