- Published
- 07 May 2020
- Journal article
Pandemics: Why Buildings are Hazards
- Authors
- Source
- Building and Cities
Abstract
The SARS outbreak in 2002/2003 lasted only 4 months had 8,000 cases and claimed the lives of 775 worldwide. This seems a paltry number of deaths given that since December 2019 the total number of lives claimed by COVID-19, caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus is reported to be 265,000 (as of 7th May). The characteristics which have contributed to this are that SARS had a much higher mortality rate and a much lower R0 (the reproductive rate of a disease - the average number of people who will catch the disease from a single infected person). This means that a higher percentage of people who contracted SARS died but it didn’t spread as rapidly as COVID-19. SARS vanished in June 2003 and has not been seen since.
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Cite as
Gormley, M. 2020, 'Pandemics: Why Buildings are Hazards', Building and Cities. https://doi.org/10.13140/RG.2.2.14944.30722