A Proposal to Refer to Four Coronaviruses of Limited Human Virulence "Common Cold Coronaviruses".

We propose the term "common cold coronaviruses," or ccCoV, to describe the four human coronaviruses commonly associated with upper respiratory tract disease - coronaviruses 229E, OC43, NL63, and HKU1. This will differentiate these previously described coronaviruses from those causing more severe disease in humans - including the viruses severe acute respiraotry syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV), the Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) and SARS-CoV-2.
Competing Interests: Potential conflicts of interest. S. P. has received research support from the National Institutes of Health (grant numbers PO1 AI060699 and R01AI AI129269) and from BioAge and ATI. J. A. E. has been a consultant for Sanofi Pasteur, Meissa Vaccines, Moderna, and AstraZeneca, and receives research support from AstraZeneca, GlaxoSmithKline, Merck, and Pfizer, unrelated to this topic. All other authors report no potential conflicts. All authors have submitted the ICMJE Form for Disclosure of Potential Conflicts of Interest. Conflicts that the editors consider relevant to the content of the manuscript have been disclosed.
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