I’ll tackle the definitions to keep it clear. When a virus is discovered and analyzed, it receives a temporary name. In this case, the temporary name given to this virus was 2019-nCoV ^[1] – “n” standing for “novel”, or new. As the genetics of the virus are analyzed, sometimes, we see similarities with other, known viruses. In this case, the genetics of 2019-nCoV are similar to the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) coronavirus, which was identified in 2003. It’s name was changed to SARS-CoV-2 to include this detail (the virus in 2003 was called SARS-CoV). In other words, the 2019 coronavirus is causing a similar kind of disease as the 2003 coronavirus. 2019-nCoV and SARS-CoV-2 both refer to the virus. On the other hand, COVID-19 refers to the disease itself (COVID-19 = coronavirus disease 2019).

Health professionals even go as far as to strategize on the proper methods of communication of thesse details. The World Health Organization, for example, prefers not to use either of the names of the virus and instead calls it “the virus responsible for COVID-19” to avoid scaring people that have lived through the epidemic in 2003^[2]. Scientists that are communicating with each other or in journals will use SARS-CoV-2^[3] because it’s easy for them to associate new viruses with older ones (World Health Organization, 2020, p. 7). It seems to me that something with such structure should be communicated to the public as is. But it hasn’t been that simple, has it?

As for its origins, media and even government throws around that SARS-CoV-2 definitely came from bats. Actually, it’s only probable^[4] that it’s come from bats, based on the similarity this virus has to other SARS-like viruses that do originate in bats. So, how do we prevent a future outbreak if we don’t know exactly where it came from? To be fair, that’s not the priority at the moment, but it’s something to consider for the future.