If there were a pageant for viruses this year, the undoubted winner would be the debutant COVID-19 virus which has captured global attention like no other. Emerging in Wuhan in China, it has swept across countries and continents with speed and stealth, to bring global travel, trade and economy to a shuddering slowdown.
Deriving its name from its resemblance to a crown, the coronavirus family includes both the inconvenient but innocuous common-cold virus as well as the sinister SARS virus. The COVID-19 virus, the most recently known member, has revealed itself to be more threatening than its cold-causing cousin, but far less menacing than its killer kinsman SARS. However, it is the ease and speed with which this highly infectious virus spreads that has led to more deaths than from SARS, within a mere two months of its emergence.
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BOOKS
Books review
STUDIO - Off Lamington Road by Gieve Patel
Oil on Canvas, 54 x 88 in
NEWS FROM THE WORLD OF MEDICINE
FOODS THAT FIGHT DEMENTIA
TO HELL AND BACK
The Darvaza crater in Turkmenistan is known as the Gates of Hell. I stood on its edge - and lived to tell the tale
THE SNAKE CHARMERS
Invasive Burmese pythons are squeezing the life out of Florida's vast Everglades. An unlikely sisterhood is taking them on
Sisterhood to Last a Lifetime
These college pals teach a master class in how to maintain a friendship for 50-plus years
...TO DIE ON A HOCKEY RINK
ONE MINUTE I WAS PLAYING IN MY BEER LEAGUE, THE NEXT I WAS IN THE HOSPITAL
Just Sit Tight
Broken, battered and trapped in a ravine for days, I desperate driver wonders, \"Will anyone find me?\"
Allow Me to Mansplain...
If there's one thing we know, it's this: We're a nation of know-it-alls
THE BITTER TRUTH ABOUT SUGAR (AND SUGAR SUBSTITUTES!)
It's no secret that we have a serious addiction. Here's how to cut back on the sweet stuff, once and for all.