Encountering The New Virus — SARS-CoV-2

Humans are encountering the COVID-19 virus for the first time. Although research on the disease is moving at breakneck speed, it sometimes feels as though we are still figuring the virus out like the blind men who encountered an elephant.

Medieval Jain temple Anekantavada doctrine artwork illustrating the story of the blind men and the elephant. From Wikipedia, photo credit Romana Klee

The ancient Indian parable of the blind men who encountered an elephant has spread across the globe over centuries, with unique versions of that story in many countries. However, the underlying message is consistent — encountered with an unknown, we tend to describe it differently based on our perspective, and it is only when all the descriptions are brought together and analyzed, does the reality of that unknown emerge.

Conspiracy theories, poor dissemination of information, poor allocation of resources, and political grandstanding aside, healthcare workers and research scientists have been putting their shoulders to the wheel in an effort to alleviate the fury of the COVID-19 outbreak from the very beginning. In the last five months since the heretofore unknown virus came to light, we have seen a rapid proliferation of research publications that strive to shine a light on how to move forward with treatments and future prevention.

While lessons from the 2003 SARS and 2012 MERS outbreaks have provided some guidance, we are still very far from the endpoint. This particular virus, while a…