Coronavirologist

Coronaviruses were declared a distinct virus group by Tyrrell and an international group of coronavirologists in 1968, on the basis of their appearance under the electron microscope after negative staining, ether lability and RNA content.

Evidently, this will be the major challenge for coronavirologists in the years to come.

As a coronavirologist, I am tempted to translate the eponymic prefix as ‘crown’ and confer the regal attribute to my favourite viruses.

Before the emergence of the original SARS, the study of coronaviruses was a professional backwater. “There has been such a deluge of attention on we coronavirologists,” said Susan R. Weiss, a virologist at the University of Pennsylvania. “It is quite in contrast to previously being mostly ignored.”