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On top of that, somewhere around 20% of the "common cold" viruses are coronaviruses.


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Something on the order of 40% of viruses that cause "colds" are corona viruses.

You may already know this, but for the sake of others, it’s important to realize that many viruses cause what we refer to as ‘common cold’. Coronaviruses are only a minor component of this set of viruses, as low as 1-2% in a study I read (can’t find it now; this value also depends on lots of factors).

"The coronavirus is the cause of about 20% of colds." and "0.2% of cold viruses are coronaviruses" aren't necessarily mutually exclusive statements

15% of common colds are caused by coronaviruses. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_cold#Viruses

I had heard 1/4 of the common cold are Coronaviruses. Thanks for clarifying here though. I tend to be very short on HN for practical purposes.

Coronaviruses cause the common cold, which is more common when it's cold.

> ...but coronaviruses make up ~40% of what we know as the common cold.

Up to 20%, and I've seen numbers as low as 15% [1].

[1] https://www.webmd.com/cold-and-flu/cold-guide/common_cold_ca...


Too late to edit my comment, but a somewhat authoritative source claims 10-15% of colds are caused by coronaviruses (UpToDate, if you're curious). The study I read may have been referring to a specific coronavirus that was mentioned in the original post.

Even that's not true. 15-30% of the viruses that are attributed to the common cold are coronaviruses, and it's pretty clear that the common cold does not behave in the way OP described.

Common cold has a variety of coronaviruses

> the common cold (which is a corona virus.)

A minority of them are. Most instances of the common cold are caused by rhinoviruses.


Alas you are a tad optimistic.

The majority of the common cold cases is caused by rhinoviruses. But yes, like 20% (ballpark) are caused by coronaviruses.


> All common colds are a coronavirus and newly discovered ones are novel.

Technically not true - coronaviruses cause 15-30% of common colds. The most common cause of the common cold is rhinovirus (30-80%); coronavirus is next, followed by influenza (10-15%), adenovirus, and then other viruses like RSV. The rest of your comment is fairly likely IMHO, though.


Around 4 coronaviruses cause colds in humans. Out of hundreds. But they are commonly distributed and cause more than their fair share of infections.

The coronaviruses that cause about 20% of common colds work that way.

FWIW this WebMD article I read a while back puts "colds" as being caused by Coronavirus 20% of the time, https://www.webmd.com/cold-and-flu/cold-guide/common_cold_ca....

Apparently 30% of cases of the common cold are cause by coronavirus. And the worrying thing is that the immunity we acquire for those is only temporary.

More correct fact: "Common cold" is a disease that can be caused by one of hundreds of virus strains and only a few of them are a coronavirus.

No. The "common cold" is a collection of 200-something distinct viruses with the same/similar symptoms, only like 10-20% of which are coronaviruses. Most of them are rhinoviruses.
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