General Question

flo's avatar

Is term "Coronavirus virus" correct, if not why not?

Asked by flo (13313points) March 9th, 2020

It’s SARS virus, Ebola virus, etc. https://www.thecoronavirus.ca/ The heading “What is the Corona Virus?” with Bing, but when it’s Google search it’s not easy if it is there to find a result “Corona virus”

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10 Answers

janbb's avatar

It’s a new coronavirus, there are older ones, and the name of the disease it causes is COVID-19.

flo's avatar

…“The Corona Virus” from Wuhan China is being called ‘2019-nCoV’ by scientists.”
https://www.thecoronavirus.ca (Same site as in the detail)

flo's avatar

….So, not “Coronavirus virus”.

Tropical_Willie's avatar

Novel Corona Virus is the proper term and the disease is COVID-19.

Te common cold is a corona virus

canidmajor's avatar

The term “Coronavirus virus” is incorrect because it uses the word “virus” twice.

This is the department of redundancy department.

JLeslie's avatar

SARS was a coronavirus. We know the name SARS because it caused a disproportionate amount of severe illness and death. The current coronavirus that is causing all of the deaths around the world and quarantines is COVID-19. There likely are other coronaviruses floating around concurrently not causing severe illness.

Similar to flu (influenza virus) we usually don’t bother knowing the name of a flu unless it is especially deadly, or causing a lot of severe illness. People are familiar with H1N1, because of the scare it caused several years ago. H1N1 was floating around a lot this year, but we didn’t hear much about it, instead it was grouped in with other flus. We also are familiar with Spanish flu, because it was so deadly.

flo's avatar

@JLeslie Please see the whole thread, you’ll see what I’m referring to.

SergeantQueen's avatar

It’s kind of like when people say “PIN number” or “ATM machine” except this isn’t an acronym so you are actually saying the word “virus” twice. Which is, as @canidmajor pointed out, redundant. Virus is included in the name “Coronavirus” which tells you it’s a virus. So you don’t need to say virus twice.

SergeantQueen's avatar

Neither SARS nor Ebola has the word virus already in the name, which is why they’d say “Ebola Virus” (Which most people just say Ebola anyways)

Dutchess_lll's avatar

Corona just means crown, or refers to the sun’s corona. The virus has a corona look to it. That’s where the name came from.

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