UPSC Prelims 2026 CSAT Paper 2 — Question 6

When SARS-CoV-2 was first detected in 2019, it was a truly novel virus for the world. At that time, no one in the world had been exposed to SARS-CoV-2 or had specific immunity against it. In contrast, people across the world have been exposed to HMPV for decades and the virus is well-studied. HMPV and SARS-CoV-2 belong to two very different virus families with fundamentally different characteristics and epidemiology, with strong seasonality seen in HMPV, unlike SARS-CoV-2. Both viruses cause different severity of symptoms, particularly over the long term, and the affected population segments do not fully overlap. In general, HMPV causes milder illness with deaths being very rare and with no long-term post-viral symptoms. Which of the following conclusions is/are valid? 1. Though SARS-CoV-2 and HMPV are similar viruses with somewhat different epidemiology, the former became a pandemic because it was novel and people had not been exposed to it in the past. 2. The two viruses have fundamentally different impacts on human populations and should not therefore be dealt with in a similar manner. Select the answer using the code given below.