Following a conversation on twitter on NCoV-EMC, I quickly realised that I did not know enough about this virus. But then I realised that it is that NOBODY knows a lot about it. There are very little answers to a growing list of questions (for whatever politically/funding/technical reasons).
So, here are a few questions that I think really need answered about the novel emerging coronavirus (I.E if you gave me infinite amounts of money, PhD students and post-docs this is what I would look at). If you have thoughts on them (think they're rubbish/not important/drastically important) or have ways to answer them, please comment below!
1) Is the NCoV-EMC isolated the sole causative agent of the viral pneumonia observed across the Arabian Peninsula and Europe?
2) How many humans have been exposed/infected?
3) What is the true case fatality rate?
4) What is/are the reservoir specie(s)?
5) What animal species have been exposed/infected?
6)Why has it emerged/only been detected in the last year?
7) How efficient is human-human transmission?
8) How does NCoV-EMC induce disease in humans?
9) Is the cell-culture isolated NCoV-EMC the 'correct' wild-type viral sequence we should work on?
10) Is the virus adapting to the human population and if so, in what way and how could that impact pathogenicity/transmissibility?
BONUS question:
11) What are we going to about it apart from sit back and wait?![]()
So, here are a few questions that I think really need answered about the novel emerging coronavirus (I.E if you gave me infinite amounts of money, PhD students and post-docs this is what I would look at). If you have thoughts on them (think they're rubbish/not important/drastically important) or have ways to answer them, please comment below!
1) Is the NCoV-EMC isolated the sole causative agent of the viral pneumonia observed across the Arabian Peninsula and Europe?
2) How many humans have been exposed/infected?
3) What is the true case fatality rate?
4) What is/are the reservoir specie(s)?
5) What animal species have been exposed/infected?
6)Why has it emerged/only been detected in the last year?
7) How efficient is human-human transmission?
8) How does NCoV-EMC induce disease in humans?
9) Is the cell-culture isolated NCoV-EMC the 'correct' wild-type viral sequence we should work on?
10) Is the virus adapting to the human population and if so, in what way and how could that impact pathogenicity/transmissibility?
BONUS question:
11) What are we going to about it apart from sit back and wait?