Coronavirus #1

The level of fearful reaction -- sometimes panic -- to the coronavirus disease or the virus seems to stem much from believing the virus is akin to a gang of hostile alien beings from outer space. Of course, some stems from not yet having a vaccine for it. The virus is different, but not that different.

"Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a kind of viral pneumonia with an unusual outbreak in Wuhan, China, in December 2019, which is caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The emergence of SARS-CoV-2 has been marked as the third introduction of a highly pathogenic coronavirus into the human population after the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV) and the Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) in the twenty-first century" (link).

SARS at Wikipedia          MERS at Wikipedia       WebMD

The number of deaths from COVID-19 and its geographic spread are already much higher than SARS or MERS. On the other hand, the number of deaths and infections in the USA so far is nowhere near the annual numbers from flu. Whether or not what's happened so far warrants the level of fearful reaction -- sometimes panic -- is a question better left for experts, not me or the general public, nor most politicians and media people.

A question for which I have found no good answers is, how much exposure to SARS-CoV-2 does it take to make a person infected? I suspect that depends on the person's health and immune system. Can a healthy person with a strong immune system be exposed to some small amount without becoming infected? How much to show symptoms and for becoming contagious?

Would I perhaps be better off in the long run if I were exposed to SARS-CoV-2 a wee bit (below a threshold of being considered as infected)? Would my immune system then develop antibodies and be better prepared for the future? Isn't that how vaccination works? "Vaccination is the administration of a vaccine to help the immune system develop protection from a disease. Vaccines contain a microorganism or virus in a weakened, live or killed state, or proteins or toxins from the organism. In stimulating the body's adaptive immunity, they help prevent sickness from an infectious disease" (Wikipedia).