WASHINGTON, D.C., USA — Coronavirus isn’t the first Pandemic to infect the United States in the 21st century, but experts believe it could be worse than the last one – the swine flu.
Swine flu, or H1N1, seems like a distant memory and a less-serious virus. Think about these numbers: In 2009, swine flu infected more than 60 million Americans. It forced more than 274,000 into hospitals and killed upwards of 12,000 people.
The virus did not originate on a different continent. It started in North America. Many virologists have evidence that the first cases began in California and then spread to the world.
Why is this coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) striking a deeper chord across the world and in America?
WUSA9 talked to Georgetown University virologist Dr. Erin Sorrell to find out. She explained that H1N1 wasn’t as contagious.
“It was able to spread to at least one or one-and-one-half people,” Sorrell said. “(This coronavirus) we see one person infected can expose two to two-and-a-half people.”
Sorrell explained that after people were infected, doctors already had antivirals in place and understood the virus. The reason? In the 20th century, Americans had already experienced a strain of swine flu.
“Ironically, the elderly were better protected from H1N1 because they had been exposed to it years prior,” she said.
That is a big difference, according to experts. Humans have not seen this type of coronavirus until now. It is a novel coronavirus.
That does not mean swine flu was not serious. If you look at the spread and the infection rate it was a pandemic.
SARS-CoV-2 is serious in a way we have not seen in most of our lifetimes. Until medical experts can understand and contain the virus, experts suggest everybody to pitch in to slow the spread.
