[floe]

My (low-information) understanding is that coronaviruses have much lower mutation rates than flu viruses!

[RivieraKid]

This is true, the influenza virus contains 8 small strands of RNA, which means that two different influenza viruses can combine to create a novel one.

[lbeltrame]

They have a proofreading RNA polymerase, IIRC, which means that indeed they have a lower error rate than other viruses.

[ebalit]

Apparently 30% of cases of the common cold are cause by coronavirus. And the worrying thing is that the immunity we acquire for those is only temporary.

[lbeltrame]

At this point, I think it's just appropriate to say "we don't know yet". This is a new virus, and not much is known about it yet.

And that is why drug development needs to go parallel with a vaccine. If a vaccine fails, we can fall back to drugs to prevent people from going into ICUs (hopefully).