NIAID Scientists Review Factors Affecting Spread of Novel Coronavirus

NIAID scientists and colleagues review in a new perspective what is known about the new coronavirus emerging in China and factors that will impact our ability to contain it. While the new virus, known as 2019-nCoV, so far appears less pathogenic than SARS and MERS (image shown) coronaviruses, its transmissibility is yet to be determined. The piece, published in The New England Journal of Medicine, explores how virus transmissibility and disease severity can impact the spread of respiratory viruses. The views come from scientists at NIAID’s campus at Rocky Mountain Laboratories in Montana and collaborators at Erasmus University Medical Center in The Netherlands.