Monthly Archives: February 2020
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- February 10, 2020
As of April 10, 2020, the number of U.S. SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus cases surpassed 500,000 with a death toll near 19,000. For over a century, coronaviruses were thought to only cause mild illnesses such as the common cold. With the ou or over a century, coronaviruses were thought to only cause mild illnesses such as the common cold. With the outbreak of the 2002-03 SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) that was caused by SARS-CoV coronavirus, this concept was rapidly overturned, and as a result coronavirus research has geared up for the fast lane.
Coronaviruses are a family of large, single-stranded RNA viruses with size ranging from 26 to 32 kb. Like other viruses, coronaviruses proliferate by invading cells, manipulating the cells into making many copies of the virus, and infecting more cells. As an RNA virus, the coronavirus lacks error-repairing mechanisms during replication, and therefore, has a relatively high mutation rate resulting in rapid evolution.
At the 3′-end of the viral
