COVID-19 Changed the World Forever On January 9, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced that a cluster of mysterious pneumonia-like cases in Wuhan, China, in late 2019 might have been caused by a previously unidentified coronavirus. By the end of that month, cases of the new virus were confirmed in Thailand, Japan and the United States, among other countries, totaling 9,800 total cases and more than 200 deaths. The respiratory disease caused by the novel coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, got its own official name in mid-February: COVID-19, or CO for corona, VI for virus and D for disease. While a high percentage of those affected suffer mild cold- or flu-like symptoms (or even no symptoms), the disease causes severe illness in others, particularly elderly patients or those with pre-existing medical conditions.