Molson Hart

Why do I think a pandemic is likely? The infection is in many parts of China and many countries in the world, with meaningful numbers of secondary transmissions. The scale is much larger than SARS for example (where the US had many introductions and no known onward transmission)

Is it correct that the common cold is a coronavirus? If that's the case does that mean that even though you have had this disease you can get it again? Is a cure or vaccine for Covid-19 just as likely as a cure or vaccine for the cold?

i.e. if COVID-19 sticks around, in the long run, we could conceivably need seasonal coronavirus booster shots along with seasonal influenza shots (flu is different mechanism - evolution more important than waning of antibody levels).

Can you explain this to me? Apparently there a whole bunch of different strains of flu and with the shot we just attempt to predict which one will be big that year. Are you saying we may see an evolved coronavirus that can sicken survivors of the original strain?

No, orig ref presents evidence (from other coronavirus strains) that immunity induced by infection wanes over time; people can be re-infected by same strain (although w/ lower prob and milder symptoms than first exposure). Anyone's guess how much this applies to COVID-19 ...