new coronavirus outbreak China, Korea, USA - mod warnings in OP (updated 24/02/20)

https://www.riverineherald.com.au/world/2020/02/20/1045690/coronavirus-spreads-like-flu-not-sars

Looking increasingly like it Spreads like Flu, not SARS:

COVID-19 appears to inhabit both the upper and lower respiratory tracts.

That would make it not only capable of causing severe pneumonia, but of spreading easily like flu or the common cold.

Researchers in Guangdong province monitored the amount of coronavirus in the 18 patients.

One of them, who had moderate levels of the virus in their nose and throat, never had any disease symptoms.

Among the 17 symptomatic patients, the team found levels of the virus increased soon after symptoms first appeared, with higher amounts of virus present in the nose than in the throats, a pattern more similar to influenza than SARS.

The level of virus in the asymptomatic patient was similar to what was present in patients with symptoms, such as fever.

"What this says is clearly this virus can be shed out of the upper respiratory tract and that people are shedding it asymptomatically," Poland said.

The findings add to evidence that this new virus, though genetically similar, is not behaving like SARS, said Kristian Andersen, an immunologist at Scripps Research in La Jolla who uses gene sequencing tools to track disease outbreaks.

"This virus is clearly much more capable of spreading between humans than any other novel coronavirus we've ever seen. This is more akin to the spread of flu," said Andersen, who was not involved with the study.