[user104658]

Originally Posted by Kizzy

Do you mean bird flu, swine flu, SARS and MERS?
The difference between those are vast, I think this is SARS to be honest.. it's bad enough, if it were MERS Then it would be pretty much game over in the UK before we could even think of finding a vaccine.

No, SARS and MERS are severe rare coronaviruses (there are 7 coronaviruses in total), bird flu and swine flu are influenza strains.

There are 4 common, mild, coronavirus strains in permanent circulation. The common cold is usually one of the four coronaviruses.

Common human coronaviruses

229E (alpha coronavirus)

NL63 (alpha coronavirus)

OC43 (beta coronavirus)

HKU1 (beta coronavirus)

Other human coronaviruses

MERS-CoV (the beta coronavirus that causes Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, or MERS)

SARS-CoV (the beta coronavirus that causes severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS)

SARS-CoV-2 (the novel coronavirus that causes coronavirus disease 2019, or COVID-19)

People around the world commonly get infected with human coronaviruses 229E, NL63, OC43, and HKU1.

Sometimes coronaviruses that infect animals can evolve and make people sick and become a new human coronavirus. Three recent examples of this are 2019-nCoV, SARS-CoV, and MERS-CoV.

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/types.html


There is a consensus that eventually Covid-19 is likely to become a "new 5th" common coronavirus.