Summary of findings as of 4/14/03 in this report: 1. SARS genome has been published by CDC. 2. SARS appears to be a new coronavirus. 3. SARS appears possibly similar to rat sialodacryoadenitis (SDA) virus as well as other coronaviruses. 4. SARS-infected persons may be free of the virus once they are well (there may be no persistent infection) but they are not permanently immune to the virus, i.e., they may catch SARS again and while their symptoms the second time may be less severe than the first time, the persons may be infectious again to persons who have not been previously infected. This suggests that it will be quite difficult to manufacture a vaccine for SARS as well as to suggest that no one is permanently immune to the disease even if they have recovered from it. 5. SARS may exist in persons as an asymptomatic disease. 6. Much scientific work is necessary to understand this disease. It will be a challenge to determine how to minimize infection numbers given that (a) a person may possibly be asymptomatic but infectious; (b) a person may have the disease and get over it but then may catch the disease again and may, again, transmit it to non-infected persons; (c) when there is a 4% mortality rate and, (d) vaccine development may be extremely difficult given that, in rats, a similar disease exists but infected rats do not appear to develop permanent immunity against the similar disease.