On the eve of 31 December 2019 as the world celebrated the start of a new decade the province of Wuhan alerted the World Health Organization of several 'flu-like' cases. Less than a week later a novel coronavirus was identified. In February the disease it caused was named COVID-19. Even now as the global infection rate crosses 100000 and the death toll surpasses 3000 we are yet to understand the threat posed by this new coronavirus. There is no vaccination to prevent it and no antiviral to cure