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Author Topic: Coronavirus  (Read 24022 times)

Sefiru

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Coronavirus
« on: February 11, 2020, 06:18:15 pm »
So, the strain that's currently in the news has been dubbed 'Covid-19'. Which sounds like something out of a Michael Crighton novel, great way to reassure the public, WHO.

I'm a little tired of the news having a segment on it every single day, and it's always the same: "X cases, Y deaths, but there's no need to panic." Well, I'm nowhere near being at risk, and it's still getting to me. Anyone else?
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Anon100

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Re: Coronavirus
« Reply #1 on: February 11, 2020, 07:24:10 pm »
So, the strain that's currently in the news has been dubbed 'Covid-19'. Which sounds like something out of a Michael Crighton novel, great way to reassure the public, WHO.

I'm a little tired of the news having a segment on it every single day, and it's always the same: "X cases, Y deaths, but there's no need to panic." Well, I'm nowhere near being at risk, and it's still getting to me. Anyone else?

Well seeing as they've got a clean up going on at a drs surgery about 1hr or less drive away from me and wanting to get hold of patients due to the possibility that someone has brought it back there and may have passed it on.. Just a little

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Re: Coronavirus
« Reply #2 on: February 12, 2020, 05:37:28 pm »
So, the strain that's currently in the news has been dubbed 'Covid-19'. Which sounds like something out of a Michael Crighton novel, great way to reassure the public, WHO.

Some of these official sources should mention that the common cold is a bloody coronavirus, this isn't some sort of Alien Disease We've Never Heard Of Before.
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Re: Coronavirus
« Reply #3 on: February 12, 2020, 06:06:06 pm »
Some of these official sources should mention that the common cold is a bloody coronavirus, this isn't some sort of Alien Disease We've Never Heard Of Before.

*Facepalm* Yes, yes they should.
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Re: Coronavirus
« Reply #4 on: February 12, 2020, 06:12:42 pm »
great way to reassure the public, WHO.

The fact that the WHO has forbidden naming diseases after people, places, occupations, animals, or food means this is going to be a lot more common moving forward. New dangerous diseases (and non-dangerous ones) are all gonna have generic, alpha-numerical names, rather than familiar names like 'Swine Flu' or such.
"The worshippers of the gods go to them; to the manes go the ancestor-worshippers; to the Deities who preside over the elements go their worshippers; My devotees come to Me." ... "Whichever devotee desires to adore whatever such Deity with faith, in all such votaries I make that particular faith unshakable. Endowed with that faith, a votary performs the worship of that particular deity and obtains the fruits thereof, these being granted by Me alone." - Sri Krishna

Sefiru

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Re: Coronavirus
« Reply #5 on: February 13, 2020, 06:07:25 pm »
The fact that the WHO has forbidden naming diseases after people, places, occupations, animals, or food means this is going to be a lot more common moving forward. New dangerous diseases (and non-dangerous ones) are all gonna have generic, alpha-numerical names, rather than familiar names like 'Swine Flu' or such.

That still leaves inanimate objects. 'Fluffy pillow disease'? 'carpet flu'?

I suspect what will start happening is that diseases will have an official and a common name. I note that the news is still calling it 'Coronavirus', which I suppose is more memorable.
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Sefiru

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Re: Coronavirus
« Reply #6 on: February 13, 2020, 06:09:23 pm »
"X cases, Y deaths, but there's no need to panic."

Also, nobody is reporting on how many of these people have recovered. I know the one confirmed case in Toronto got better; are all of those 40,000 people in China still sick?
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Anon100

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Re: Coronavirus
« Reply #7 on: February 13, 2020, 06:22:22 pm »
Also, nobody is reporting on how many of these people have recovered. I know the one confirmed case in Toronto got better; are all of those 40,000 people in China still sick?

I recall hearing the death rate is lower than other recent viruses but the problem is the spread has been quicker so that's why the death nos are so high

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Re: Coronavirus
« Reply #8 on: February 13, 2020, 08:23:48 pm »
Also, nobody is reporting on how many of these people have recovered. I know the one confirmed case in Toronto got better; are all of those 40,000 people in China still sick?

I keep seeing reporting that I'd consider fairly reliable that the true mortality rate* in China (ie: a completely overwhelmed and thus non-functioning health system) is in the neighborhood of 20%. That said, the infection rate seems to be parked at about 2% from what I can tell.

I'm still working on getting a handle on the conflicting reports regarding possible satellite detection of overnight surges of sulfur dioxide in severely affected areas in China. If the levels are indeed as high as claimed, there's mass cremations going on under the cover of darkness.

All that said...the countries that most of us here live in are treating COVID-19 seriously and aggressively as the individual cases pop up. A functioning health system with sufficient resources for aggressive treatment and isolation should handle such a stress-test well enough.

Where I think the real uncertainty lies is that we collectively rely on China to manufacture a shitload of our stuff...including medicine and items used in hospitals. We're just going to have to wait and see how that plays out.


*that is, the rate of deaths among the infected and NOT the general population. 
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Re: Coronavirus
« Reply #9 on: February 14, 2020, 09:17:27 am »

All that said...the countries that most of us here live in are treating COVID-19 seriously and aggressively as the individual cases pop up. A functioning health system with sufficient resources for aggressive treatment and isolation should handle such a stress-test well enough.


Basically this right here. Being in the profession I'm in, I get the emails from the board of health regarding updates from the CDC directly. As of right now every case that's popped up in the US (which as of today has been only 14 confirmed, per CDC: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/cases-in-us.html) has so far been contained. They've put in rigorous protocol for isolating potential carriers, including putting them into airborne isolation rooms. That's definitely above and beyond, because most other coronaviruses are spread by droplet, not airborne.

As has been mentioned above, coronaviruses are actually super common- the common cold is one. SARS and MERS were also coronaviruses and now we don't even hear about those. Defend yourself the same way you would for a cold; stay away from anyone you know to be sick, wash your hands frequently, and don't touch your face unless you KNOW your hands are clean.

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Re: Coronavirus
« Reply #10 on: February 14, 2020, 09:56:50 am »
As has been mentioned above, coronaviruses are actually super common- the common cold is one. SARS and MERS were also coronaviruses and now we don't even hear about those. Defend yourself the same way you would for a cold; stay away from anyone you know to be sick, wash your hands frequently, and don't touch your face unless you KNOW your hands are clean.

I know people who (here in the US) are panicking over this. However, people need to keep things in perspective. There have been 18,000+ deaths in the US from the FLU so far this flu season. The above listed common sense precautions should be will also help protect you from (and help prevent the spread of) the flu, the common cold, and a number of other diseases which can be very serious for people with weakened immune systems.
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Re: Coronavirus
« Reply #11 on: February 14, 2020, 10:43:47 am »
Also, nobody is reporting on how many of these people have recovered. I know the one confirmed case in Toronto got better; are all of those 40,000 people in China still sick?

I don't know about recovery rate, but I do know some factories of non-essential products are back up and running.

I back games/tarot/dice on kickstarter, and several projects there have been in communication with the factories they are using for production, and the original response was that the Chinese government was going to start allowing people back to work, starting with essential factories (so not stuff like games/tarot/dice).  At least one of the factories involved in one of the projects I am backing is remaining closed a bit longer for their worker's protection and better health.  One of the dice companies I follow on Facebook just announced yesterday they were up and running.  All of them, so far (that I know of), have said their workers are doing well and healthy, so it sounds (from what I am seeing) like things are starting to recover.

I always wonder, with statistics like this, how many of the people who were killed were in the risky category already (how many of them might have fallen to a regular flu virus basically).   Because it's really easy to see statistics and freak out, but as people have mentioned, the regular flu kills a fair number of people, and we often forget that.  Not saying at all that it's not something to be concerned about, but I do think that media often blows things out of proportion.
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Re: Coronavirus
« Reply #12 on: February 14, 2020, 07:10:15 pm »
I keep seeing reporting that I'd consider fairly reliable that the true mortality rate* in China (ie: a completely overwhelmed and thus non-functioning health system) is in the neighborhood of 20%. That said, the infection rate seems to be parked at about 2% from what I can tell.

I don't know ... the numbers I've seen reported by the CBC news have the mortality rate (or at least, reported deaths vs reported infections) at about 2%. Mind you, that depends if you think the numbers reported by the Chinese government are accurate, but that's a whole other can of worms.
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TheGreenWizard

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Re: Coronavirus
« Reply #13 on: February 20, 2020, 10:56:08 am »
So, the strain that's currently in the news has been dubbed 'Covid-19'. Which sounds like something out of a Michael Crighton novel, great way to reassure the public, WHO.

I'm a little tired of the news having a segment on it every single day, and it's always the same: "X cases, Y deaths, but there's no need to panic." Well, I'm nowhere near being at risk, and it's still getting to me. Anyone else?

I'm getting tired of it from the point of view of a science teacher. (Background: I teach 6th grade science in NYC). I've had to deal with kids discriminating against anyone who looks Chinese or who is wearing a face mask; I've had to deal with kids joking about the Coronavirus in various forms (you can get it from drinking a Corona); and now I'm dealing with my coworkers who aren't even thinking properly about the information they're hearing and actually passing along mis-information to the kids. SMDH.

I'm currently on break, but I'm half-tempted to ask if I can make a bulletin board about Covid-19 and the other coronaviruses to help spread awareness, as well as how the hell to beat it, such as washing your hands, and not touching your face, and use face masks as a way to prevent getting sick and to prevent others from getting sick. Will have to talk with my admin about that one.
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Re: Coronavirus
« Reply #14 on: February 20, 2020, 11:42:21 am »
I'm currently on break, but I'm half-tempted to ask if I can make a bulletin board about Covid-19 and the other coronaviruses to help spread awareness, as well as how the hell to beat it, such as washing your hands, and not touching your face, and use face masks as a way to prevent getting sick and to prevent others from getting sick. Will have to talk with my admin about that one.

I think a bulletin board is a great idea. Do you have a librarian? This strikes me as a great chance for some information literacy as well as science literacy, and about how news gets reported, and what sources to pay the most attention to.

(I'm in camp 'for people not near an outbreak, the flu is currently more dangerous, take the sensible precautions including a flu shot if you haven't already and can, and it's never a bad idea to learn more about how to avoid passing things on. I have to do cross-country plane flights for a work trip in mid-March, and have chronic health stuff that makes me a lot more at risk of lung problems, so I am personally also in camp 'let us have gotten a grip on this by then, please')
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