Before we can talk about testing, we must first agree on terminology. The official name of the disease of the pandemic is COVID-19, short for Coronavirus Disease of 2019. The official name of the virus that causes COVID-19 is SARS-CoV-2, so named because it is a coronavirus (“CoV”) that produces Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (“SARS”). The “2” is tacked on the end to distinguish this virus from the SARS-producing coronavirus that caused the outbreak in 2003; that virus is now called SARS-CoV-1. I am just reporting here—no one asked for my help to come up with these names.
The relationship of SARS-CoV-2 to COVID-19 is the same as the relationship of HIV to AIDS. The first is the name of the virus; the second is the disease that may be caused when infected by the virus. I said “may” because being infected by the virus is not the same as having the disease. In order to have the disease, you must test positive for the disease-causing virus, and you must also have the disease’s defining symptoms. In the case of AIDS, the defining symptoms include co-infection by at least one of a long list of “opportunistic organisms”, organisms that take advantage of a weakened immune system. In the case of COVID-19, criteria for disease requires symptoms of respiratory illness which may range from “cold symptoms” to pneumonia. A person infected by SARS-CoV-2 who does not have those symptoms does not have COVID-19.
It is important to note that there is no laboratory test for COVID-19. Instead, the laboratory tests for the presence of the virus that causes COVID-19 (i.e., SARS-CoV-2) or the body’s response to infection by that virus. Next time, we will discuss the various tests available for detection of the virus or the body’s response to infection.
2 replies on “Names to Know”
[…] SARS-CoV-2 tests are not tests of cure. They can tell you when someone is first infected by the virus, and that is all. They cannot tell you when someone has rid themselves of disease and is no longer infectious. The diagnosis of COVID-19 requires evidence of respiratory disease and a positive test for SARS-CoV-2. Either one without the other is not COVID-19. Despite the CDC’s redefinition midway through the pandemic, there is no laboratory test for COVID-19. […]
[…] COVID-19. The CDC confuses a SARS-CoV-2 test with COVID-19, something this blog has warned against since the early days of the pandemic, but which has become an institutionalized misconception […]