right now, it’s too early to say. vox reports that it’s still unknown what animal carries this virus, how it easily it spreads among people, how deadly it is or the range of symptoms it can cause.
bbc says that so far there have been at least nine reported patient deaths, accounting for only two per cent of known cases. while the number seems small, the infection does seem to take awhile to kill, so more of those patients could die. it remains unclear how many unreported cases there are.
while experts are unsure how 2019-ncov is spread or how easy it is to catch, vox reports that we do know the coronavirus is part of a larger family of coronaviruses , which mostly infect animals including bats.
according to the cdc, most coronaviruses are most commonly passed through the air (via coughing and sneezing), close personal contact (like shaking hands) and touching an object or surface with the virus on it before touching your mouth. on a rare circumstance, it can be passed through fecal contamination.
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while the virus is relatively new, so far it does not have the fatality rates as sars, which killed nearly 800 people around the world in 2002-2003.
should we be worried? it’s tough to say. but for now, the cdc states that the risk factors are low as they continue to work overseas to research the virus to find out those unknown questions.