Virus Metadata Repository: version July 20, 2021; MSL36

Thanks for clarifying.  Time-Life over-simplified by comparing it to HIV.  And, up until around Dec. 15, 2021 I had not found the complete classification on Google search.  Now, the information is out there.  Maybe thanks to ICTV!  I know this is a public site anyone can access, even without email.  Note: that "revised"  Time-Life came out in March, 2020 when it was difficult to find and buy periodicals in stores.  

SARS-CoV-2 is a coronavirus and has a positive-sense RNA genome encapsidated in the virion. The Baltimore classification for all coronaviruses, including SARS-CoV-2, is type IV. This has never been in doubt since its identfication in January, 2020.

So, no authority wishes to state its Baltimore Type as a IV ? (general coronaviruses such as SARS1 and MERS).  The first science writers called COVID-19 an "RNA Virus like HIV."   Time-Life Revised "The Science of Epidemics" Winter 2020 explained this in the article about Dr. David Ho researching the novel coronavirus for treatments.  I would guess it  is as they  were saying, an RNA retrovirus.  That is, a Type VI in Baltimore.  The significance of this is the prognosis of Type VI : pessimistic since it is a long, drawn-out battle.   The authorities are  exhausting resources on COVID-19 Testing, primarily.  Secondarily, vaccines only effective short-term and impossible to keep up with.  Of course, I am not in working science or with an institution.  Retired citizen, molecular biology doctoral drop-out from UT-Austin in 1984 short of a PhD.  Is there scientist disagreement about Baltimore classification of the COVID-19?  Even worse, might it not be any one of the seven Types?  If it was created artificially, or a single-step genetic recombination among bat and pangolin viruses?  Does SARS CoV2 defy Baltimore Typology?   Just give me a Type, Roman Numeral, please, anyone?   

SARS-CoV-2 is a positive sense RNA virus classified under the species Severe acute respiratory syndrome-related coronavirus. The full taxonomic path is: 

Riboviria > Orthornavirae > Pisuviricota > Pisoniviricetes > Nidovirales > Cornidovirineae > Coronaviridae > Orthocoronavirinae > Betacoronavirus > Sarbecovirus > Severe acute respiratory syndrome-related coronavirus

What is the classification of SARS CoV-2?  I suspect it is a retrovirus, which would make it Type VI.  I have seen SARS CoV1 classified as simply an RNA virus such as Type IV.