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Six Minute English.

From BBC Learning English.

com. Hello, this is six minute English from BBC Learning English. I'm Neil and I'm

Georgina. COVID-19 has changed everyday life for people in countries around the world. But coronavirus wasn't the first

pandemic to cause mass sickness and disrupt daily life.

Between 2002 and 2004, an outbreak of the disease known as SARS or severe acute respiratory syndrome

caused hundreds of deaths in southern China before spreading to other parts of the world.

The virus that caused SARS survived by mutating,

changing as it reproduced itself in the bodies of infected people

and this caused the virus to create strains, slight variations of the original.

COVID-19, the disease caused by the strain of the original SARS virus we are experiencing now has been called SARS 2.

In this program we'll be looking at the origins of COVID-19 and hearing new evidence about

the scale of the threat we face from the disease.

And of course we'll be learning some new vocabulary as well.

But first it's time for our quiz question.

We know that white blood cells make up part of the immune system our body needs to fight infectious diseases like COVID-19,

but how many white blood cells per microletor does the average adult human need? Is it A 7,000, B 17,000 or C 70,000?

Mm in that case I say more is better so see 70,000

Okay, we'll find out the answer at the end of the program now Georgina

You mentioned that the disease spreading across the world today wasn't the first COVID-19 type disease.

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