Like other coronaviruses, the virus colonized the cells lining the respiratory tract. But unlike its more mild brethren, the new virus tinkered with the human immune system, disrupting infected cells’ ability to warn neighboring cells of the viral intruder in the body. As a result, in about a quarter of the infected, what started off seeming like flu rapidly escalated into life-threatening pneumonia as infected lungs filled with fluid and starved the body of oxygen. Over the following months, the virus sickened more than eight thousand with what came to be known as SARS, for severe acute
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