
Ask HN: Was coronavirus known before wuhan? - muse900
I’ve seen several articles and photos showing disinfectants like dettol back label saying it can kill coronavirus.<p>Now scientists say that’s not true.<p>The dates from the labels though are from 2019.<p>Now I know a lot of scientists browse through yc and since I can’t find any info on if the virus existed previously and if the wuhan’s one is just a new evolved generation of the virus, I’d like to ask if the virus was known previously and we are currently dealing with an evolved version of it.
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gus_massa
From
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coronavirus](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coronavirus)

> _Coronaviruses are a group of viruses that cause diseases in mammals and
> birds. In humans, the viruses cause respiratory infections which are
> typically mild, including the common cold; however, rarer forms such as
> SARS, MERS and the novel coronavirus causing the current outbreak can be
> lethal._

Look at the history page
[https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Coronavirus&actio...](https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Coronavirus&action=history)
It has like 800 changes. The oldest one is from March 2003
[https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Coronavirus&oldid...](https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Coronavirus&oldid=779606)

> _we are currently dealing with an evolved version of it_

This is true in the technical sense, but my guess is that you are using
"evolved" in the not technical sense that is closer to "upgraded".

There are many strains of coronavirus. I can find the number, but Wikipedia
list like 10 potentially deadly version for humans and like 10 potentially
deadly version for domestic animals. There are more versions for wild animals.
And there are all the non deadly versions that give you a common cold, and you
pass the version to your friends, and it get's cured in a week. I can't find a
good number, and it looks like a too deep rabbit hole to go into, so let me
guess a few thousands of versions.

Each version is specialized in a different animal, or family of animals.
(Probably to detect the best spot in the nose to reproduce and be contagious,
perhaps some small adaptations to the temperature and humidity of that spot.)

The current outbreak of coronavirus is a virus that was specialized in some
animal (bats? snakes?) and probably was infecting them for centuries and now
is infecting humans. Perhaps nobody meet an ill animal before. Perhaps a
mutation of the virus was helpful to avoid the inmune system of the animal,
and the same mutation make it by chance more contagious or deadly in humans.

------
buboard
the only reason it 's still called coronavirus is nobody has come up with a
creative name, and everyone insists on not calling it "wuhan virus".

Anybody want to give it a name?

~~~
rotterdamdev
It has a name. Do your homework.

It is called coronavirus (a familynof virii) because of the shape of the
organism.

~~~
buboard
sars and mers and thousands of others are also coronaviruses. this one is
currently designated "2019 novel coronavirus" which is not very practical

