The coronavirus formerly known as 2019 NCOV isn't going anywhere.

Just on Wednesday, something like 70 people died from it in China.

That brings the death toll to well over 500 in China with something like 3,800 people

currently in critical condition and close to 30,000 cases in total.

50 million people have been locked down, cordoned off from the rest of the world and the rest

of the world is scared.

Flights are being canceled.

People are stuck in a cruise ship.

Japan is worried about the 2020 Olympics.

There are still a lot of unknowns out there, so today on the show, we wanted to explain

some things we do know.

How viruses like these are born and how they might die.

To find out, I talked to Vanita Menicherry.

I am a researcher at the University of Texas Medical Branch.

Vanita took some time away from his super important work at the Galveston National Lab.

The Galveston National Lab works on some of the most dangerous pathogens in the world, including

Ebola, coronaviruses, Hata, and a number of other important infectious diseases.

We started with the origin story.

In 2002 and 2003, at the end of the year, there was a new outbreak that was reported in China

and in Hong Kong of a typical pneumonia.

At that time, we just knew that it was a severe acute respiratory syndrome and it quickly

traveled around the world in a period of about six months going to, around the world,

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