Covid is a family of viruses so they likely will have discussed health implications of them years ago if any managed to get here and were dangerous. But Covid 19 - the one we have now (19 being a clue nobody thinks it was the first) - has created a pandemic that the others had the potential to do but none did.
the 19 in Covid-19 refers to 2019 - "novel coronavirus 2019" - the name is actually SARS-CoV-2.
