Compared with the filoviruses, like the one which can cause Ebola fever, the coronaviruses have always been thought to play a minor role in infections and for this reason when Professor Yuen Kwok-yung of Hong Kong University's microbiology department first announced that the culprit behind SARS was a coronavirus, many experts just snickered.
和會造成出血熱的絲狀病毒相較，冠狀病毒在學者眼中一向是個不起眼的小角色，因此當香港大學微生物學系主任袁國勇首先表示 SARS 元凶是冠狀病毒時，不少學者還嗤之以鼻。