More potent coronaviruses have emerged in recent years. MERS-CoV I is a beta coronavirus that causes Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, or MERS. SARS-CoV is a beta coronavirus that causes severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS. Today, the world is dealing with SARS-CoV-2 (the novel coronavirus that causes coronavirus disease 2019, or COVID-19. Now researchers are finding out that the newest strain has a "disturbing parallel to HIV" allowing for abnormal "depletion of important immune cells."

The HIV component of the Wuhan virus is coming out

To better understand covid-19, virologists have analyzed its RNA sequence and its properties. Coronaviruses are characterized by the "spike protein" they produce in order to infect human immune cells.