Are you starting to worry about Coronavirus yet?
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Are you starting to worry about Coronavirus yet?
We go in to town usually at most a couple times a week. If more cases start showing up in our area, we may load up the fridge and freezer and stay home more.
jtk
Eh, it's coming. Nothing can be done about that. Wash your hands, stay home if you're sick. Don't sneeze/cough into open air, etc etc. Be happy this isn't 100 years ago. FWIW, I regularly work with people in China, I've been concerned about this for them for a bit already and I'm honestly surprised it hasn't hit the US more heavily already.
It only attacks the old and infirm, re mortality, so keep healthy and get over it. The really awful consequences historically were when these things took down otherwise vigorous young people.
Just say no to anyone offering you a taste of monkey meat, etc. That's where it started.
Misinformation is worse than no information, particularly about things like this where there is a clear lack of good information. The death rate may be significantly worse (or somewhat lower) than the 2% approximated and unfortunately it will take quite a long time (months) to know for sure.
Its not the death rate that's the problem, its the potential for high rates of sick people, filling hospital beds, unable to work and earn money, schools closed, factories and businesses closed due to high rates of absences. Every sick person requires other people to take care of them. Thats a huge drain on a local economy, let alone a country or region. Even if you dont personally get sick, there's an impact.
You are correct. I should have said that the mortality _skews_heavily_ towards the old and infirm.
Many more people die of the flu each year.
One choice that was omitted from the poll, was, should we take this more seriously than was done on our behalf? And my answer is yes. There is a big span between devil-may-care and lock-up-your-women-and-children. We can deal with this, intelligently.
Not yet but being one of the old and infirm (74) I take it seriously.
I don't worry but I do have concerns. One concern is a trip planned to Italy in a couple of months. According to our contacts there and the news reports some of our long-planned destinations in Northern Italy are already under lockdown. There are apparently about 400 known cases in Italy now and a dozen deaths. This morning's news indicates seven additional European counties have now reported cases, some involving people who had been to Italy.
If I had a working crystal ball maybe I could decide if I should cancel now and just lose a few thousand dollars already spent. I'm seriously considering staying home. This would even involved close contact with crowds of international travelers at the airports and customs.
Depending on the situation in a few months I can imagine being denied reentry to the US or enduring an extended quarantine on return. Or becoming a statistic.
JKJ
yup...I'm invested in a Chinese wealth management company (NOAH), dropped from $39 to $29 in a couple of weeks
I'm in the same boat. Was planning a trip to Barcelona. Think I may eat the loss.
NYTimes "The Daily" had a great podcast this AM about the relative severity of COVID vs previous recent virus epidemics.
Updates:
There are now 528 cases reported in Italy, up about 100 from yesterday, and two more deaths, 14 total.
An Italian regional governor has gone into self-isolation after a staff member was diagnosed with the disease.
My Lovely Bride follows the Rick Steves forum and reports from those with feet on the ground. I'll find out in a bit what she learns today.
The US State Department issued a Travel Advisory yesterday (Wednesday) suggesting to use caution when traveling to Italy. It does not YET recommend to avoid travel to Italy. I'm not totally reassured.
JKJ
Yes, I am worried about catching it. I usually get the flu even though I always get the flue shot. I am not young and healthy strong anymore.
I am also pissed off about how the economy is going to be affected. I was planning on buying a house in another state during the next few months and selling my current house at the end of next summer. That is completely out of phase with what the housing market will be doing.
I would not be planning a trip overseas or to places where crowds will be for the foreseeable future. If travel then I would purchase airline trip insurance unless you are a really healthy teenager. Even then I would do insurance because what ever you are going to attend may be cancelled.
Normally I would step back, but this is important and can get dangerous with misinformation.
We are only gathering data now on who is most vulnerable. This is not necessarily true of COVID-19. It's dangerous. Period. Full stop.
Raw numbers, yes. Percentagewise, no! COVID-19 has a 20-fold higher mortality rate than flu. As of now, there are fewer COVID-19 cases than flu. Let's hope it stays that way, but we best prepare for quite the opposite. There are more flu cases, thus more mortality in terms of raw numbers there.
We can only hope that the government response is largely not reflected by the embarrassing press conference. There was so much false information (from largely one individual) in that press conference that it is frightening.
we are getting prepared for shortages of non-essentials. dog food, chicken food. if the chickens can eat, we have an excellent home grown source of protein. our cellar still has many squash and lots of cans of tomatoes. probably be able to last until the garden starts producing this seasons crop if it does get really bad here. i expect though that this will not effect essentials like food and water too much. I can see problems with stuff like pet food if the virus gains a foothold in the US.
cdc is saying we have our first community transmission in northern CA. So be prepared. It's not prepping, you will use all the supplies eventually. if not this global issue, the next one.
People keep saying its not as bad as the flu are wrong. It just started end of 2019 and its made it worldwide. the flue virus starts everywhere lying dormant and hits the numbers it does. COVID-10 started in 1 meet market.
The rate of infection is much greater. 2-3 times greater. Not as bad as smallpox or polio or Measles but we have vaccines for those. And the mortality rate is 20 x greater. All diseases attack the week worse then the rest
We should, at least, be clear that when people refer to influenza they are referring to a normal year.. and standard strain. Not something like H5N1 (which had an obnoxiously high mortality rate).
Even if you're courageous enough to go anyway, you ought to consider whether the place you're visiting is so disrupted that it takes all the enjoyment out of it. I guess you won't be able to assess that until you get closer to your scheduled travel dates, but it's just another angle to think about.
The wife and I are stocking up on non perishables. We spent most of the winter emptying the freezer and pulling canned goods out of the pantry anyway. We will make room in the freezer again for when the salmon are running this summer. Not bunker, just keeping the food storage topped up.
And the fact that governments, the medical and pharma, have had YEARS AND YEARS of preparedness against numerous strains of influenza. No different than the rash outbreaks of Ebola that are immediately contained on pretty much a military level, virtually every single entity with a possible vaccine for ebola after all this time has stated they are 1.5 years to release of any quantity that would reasonably put a dent.
Thats the fear with this one. 20x mortality rate, pretty much zero preparedness even though pharma has been on Corona for 10 years (but there was no profit in it so....)...
The bonus to come out of this is the planet may finally see a reduction in the consumption of bush meat. If this hits far enough out in to the sticks individuals may finally realize that markets selling bats, monkeys, and all sorts of other caught wild animals is a grave grave mistake.
Ebola is said to have likely made the jump from A SINGLE HUMAN from a bat, and now has spread to the nightmare it is now. Corona virus has been traced back to a single market in China selling bush meat and likely also made the jump from a bat to a human. We now have 5 strains of Ebola on the planet.
I haven't seen anything that actually points to a source yet. Just a whole lot of conjecture. We have corona viruses spread every year btw. They're not uncommon.
Talk is they may restore some of the funding cuts to the CDC and public health service. The CDC is mad that they got overruled and the state department brought in a plane load of people, including known infected ones. Surprise, surprise some of them got infected on the ride home with the sick ones. Caring is sharing!
Bill D.
The outbreak has definitively been traced back to a few dozen workers at a live animal market in Wuhan. Thats fact. Scientists have pointed it to bats, ant eater, and several others though with no definitive conclusion as of yet. The simple fact is bush meat/live animal transfer is where the jump happened. No different than Ebola. Its not a matter of where, its just a matter of the definitive source.
I sincerely hope it is controlled and minimized for society's and humanities sake. But personally, After numerous "scares" and media alarms over the decades, put me in the "what me worry" camp.
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Funny thing is poor governance lead to the start of this, but I think the Chinese governments ability to mount a mass coordinated response and the Chinese people willingness to conform to direction will help the greatly contain this. Ironically I see corruption to blame, by communism will help solve it.
In 'the west' I think our biggest issue will be the 'me first' mentality. People will ignore the steps we need to contain this, they will decide they know better than the health professionals.
Perhaps the best statement Ive read in a long time. A combination of corporate driven media driving a constant state of painic and fear to keep viewers tuned in has led to a huge faction of the population thinking everything from weather to spread of virus is an overblown media scam (which it all too often is) and we are all waiting for the unfortunate time that its real.
You cant foul up the fish tank and not expect the tank to finally turn over and all but one or two are left floating upside down, the tank then recovers and finds is balance, and starts again. Sadly we cant choose the floaters.
We've already considered that, thanks. Several things on our list are already closed, at least for now. This was to be our fifth trip or sixth to Italy so it's not a missed lifetime opportunity if it doesn't happen, although it might be more disappointing for the guest we were taking who has not yet visited.
My wife said this morning that we could easily spend the whole trip driving and touring across the country and mountains and never get near the cities and tourist spots, but that wouldn't avoid the contact with other travelers at security, airplanes, and customs. A friend suggested I hire a private charter flight. Ha! Maybe if he pays for it.
JKJ
The SARS epidemic in Toronto was in my neighbourhood, and engulfed the hospital a block from home.
That was a scary one because it took us some time to diagnose what was going on.
I don't want to minimize the Covid 19 threat, however in Canada we've had approximately 12 cases and no deaths. If I'm understanding what I've read, California may have had the first NA case of transmission in NA.
My daughter is a nurse in Toronto, so far they're using standard controls and no healthcare workers have contracted the disease, sounds like knowledge gained from other events is working.
It's hard for Canadians to understand the details of your healthcare system because we lack experience with it. If you go to a hospital or clinic does a diagnostic test for Covid 19 cost you any out of pocket money?
Regards, Rod.
P.S. Funny timing, I came across a copy of Jack London's book "The Scarlet Plague" a couple of months ago, I had never read it before then.
True, and there are pluses and minuses both ways.
For example, it is not good when a person who is symptomatic foregoes professional attention due to cost.
On the other hand, when there is no cost barrier, the system can get overwhelmed with the "worried well".
This is what is happening at the moment in Japan, where they have nationalized universal coverage healthcare for their citizens. They are putting out public announcements trying to urge people to avoid going to the doctor or hospital unnecessarily.
Well, the health pros have made some big mistakes. If you don't believe me ,ask the owners of a certain beer company.