OREANDA-NEWS. The main difference between COVID-19 and other viral diseases lies in the nature of its spread. Doctor and TV presenter Alexander Myasnikov told about this in his Telegram channel.

First of all, the physician urged not to qualify COVID-19 as a new disease.

"There is no such new disease COVID! There have always been ARIs (acute respiratory viral diseases) and there have always been viral pneumonias," he said.

According to him, the causative agents of ARVI and viral pneumonia have always been influenza viruses of type A and B, human coronaviruses (CoV-229E, CoV-NL63, CoV-OC43, CoV-HKU1), rino- and adenoviruses, respiratory syncytial virus and others.
In turn, the SARS-CoV-2 virus simply added to this list, the specialist explained.

"In terms of clinical manifestations, neither acute respiratory infections, nor viral pneumonia caused by the new coronavirus, differ in any way from acute respiratory infections and viral pneumonia caused by other pathogens," he said.
Myasnikov concluded that the main problem of COVID-19 is caused by its massiveness, while mortality rates are 0.1-0.09% with an adequate level of vaccination of the population.

Worldwide, according to WHO, there are more than 281 million infected, 5.4 million of them could not be saved. The most difficult situation is in the USA, India, Brazil and Great Britain. Russia ranks fifth on this list.