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There is circumstantial evidence to indicate that the OC43 beta coronavirus crossed from animals in 1889 and killed about a million people worldwide. It can still be fatal to elderly or immunocompromised patients. The only reason it doesn't kill many people today is that most of us are infected as children and build up a level of immunity, so subsequent reinfections tend to have mild symptoms. Just like SARS-CoV-2.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7252012/




Maybe that's how SARS-CoV-2 will end up - people will get it as kids and become immunized.




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