News COVID-19 pandemic

[Sbb1413]

The COVID-19 was first found in Wuhan, China in 2019. Later, it spread throughout the entire China on February 2020. It was not declared pandemic until March 2020. Since then, every corner of the Earth is suffering from the serious impact of the pandemic.

As of 2021, vaccination is engaged to reduce the threat of COVID-19.

Edit 14/05/21: COVID-19 isn't over yet. Its variants are becoming more violent over time.

 

[Notebook]

Its reported here as a 2% mortality rate. Less than the yearly flu we get, but much more infectious.

 

[Urwumpe]

I heard that both India and China are affected by the Corona disease. Like the 4th stage of cancer, this cannot be cured! OMG, I will die in this disease once I affected!!

I am sorry for you in that case. But 98% of all humans will survive it. :dry:


Or in other words: Corona is as deadly as manned spaceflight.

I believe that there will be a massive epidemic on Asia. There are various possible scenarios of what will happen after the epidemic. I am enlisting some of them on the poll.

Possible, but China does a lot to contain it again all odds. So far its not too bad, compared to SARS.




Here is a very good and up-to-date german FAQ by the German Robert-Koch-Institut, the German federal agency for disease control:


https://www.rki.de/SharedDocs/FAQ/NCOV2019/FAQ_Liste.html

 

[dbeachy1]

How about a fourth poll option like "The epidemic will burn itself out with no significant population changes."

 

[Urwumpe]

How about a fourth poll option like "The epidemic will burn itself out with no significant population changes."

I would love to see the following option "Humanity will work together to contain the epidemic." :lol:

 

[Artlav]

Over here it's known as a Totem Flu. Some obscure disease spikes in China, media panic, nothingburger, repeat a couple years later.

Let's hope the pattern continues, since this time looks rather big.

 

[MaverickSawyer]

I'm not worried about 2019 nCoV. The media is up to its usual fear-mongering shenanigans (with a healthy dose of racism and sinophobia thrown in for good measure) and is making it out to be far more serious than it actually is. The only folks who did after catching this are the immunocompromised and those without proper medical treatment, which is a significant factor in why the death toll has not been growing very swiftly outside of rural China.

As others have mentioned, be far more concerned about the seasonal flu that's going around. That's killed over a thousand people in the US this winter already, again mostly untreated and/or immunocompromised individuals. But you don't see the western media jumping on that...

 

[Donamy]

Wash your hands, and cook everything to the temperature it needs to be. You'll be fine.

 

[MaverickSawyer]

Cooking food properly, though still sound advice, won't make a difference in this particular case.

Now, covering your mouth and nose when you sneeze and/or cough, and encouraging other to do the same... That's going to help this situation immensely.

 

[Urwumpe]

Now, covering your mouth and nose when you sneeze and/or cough, and encouraging other to do the same... That's going to help this situation immensely.

Washing your hands properly seems to be the best working solution. The viruses are transported less far by the small droplets that you fire into the air by coughing, than by what you have on your skin afterwards.



Still, its better to cover your mouth with our ellbow when sneezing than to do nothing at all.



AND GO TO THE DOCTOR INSTEAD OF GOING TO WORK DAMNIT!

 

[Ripley]

I would love to see the following option "Humanity will work together to contain the epidemic." :lol:

Already happening somehow.

 

[Thorsten]

The major civilizations will collapse.

I'm going to go with that one:lol: Given how easily journalists are willing to kick out math to get scary headlines, it's only a question till that spreads. And without math, civilization will not do well.

Its reported here as a 2% mortality rate. Less than the yearly flu we get, but much more infectious.

Actually, if I have done my research right, 2% would be on par with the Spanish Flu, i.e. rather serious. The more normal yearly influenza seems to have mortality rates around 0.2%, with severe strains like the Hongkong Flu around 0.5%.

However...

Given how quickly (with back then ~500 people reported infected) the Corona appeared in other parts of the world (what are the odds that of 500 infected people 30 board international flights during the next days) and how little some patients seem to be affected, chances are that there's lots of cases with symptoms so light (or not existent) that they never even get reported, thus bumping the real mortality rate down by a factor 5 or 10.

So from what I can deduce from the known data, it actually looks pretty comparable of a seasonal flu in the end.

 

[Nikogori]

Deer in Nara park are already suffering from significant loss of Chinese tourists (who like to feed them).

 

[Donamy]

Well with less deer, there will be less deer ticks.

 

[steph]

Oh man, the insanity about this...We've already had a suspect case in rural France. Two of a group of 11 who vacationed in Thailand in January and started showing symptoms one day after they came back. The french CDC didn't want to acknowledge the posibility and they literally had to drive 100km to Nantes to get checked (apparently, they didn't have it).

Thing is, I'm still not 100% sure they actually did the test or some intern went "Nah, that can't be", so it remains to be seen.

In any case, up to two weeks incubation period without symptoms? That's enough to spread. Around here, we're already having the flu doing the rounds. This one has the same symptoms, the only difference is that some of the cases will get acute respiratory distress. Not that different from Sars, really. The first Chinese doctors actually thought it was a form of Sars, and reported it in the medical groups, thus getting jumped by the police for 'misinformation'

My bet is most cases in France at least will get passed as pneumonia/regular flu. The only real issue will be when/if people start dropping Wuhan-style

 

[Graham2001]

First, a title sequence from a 1970s BBC 'End of the World Series'...

Second, a reasonable discussion of what's going on...

Thirdly, another discussion of events.

 

[Graham2001]

Something a little less serious inspired by current events...

 

[Gmoney]

Washing your hands properly seems to be the best working solution. The viruses are transported less far by the small droplets that you fire into the air by coughing, than by what you have on your skin afterwards.



Still, its better to cover your mouth with our ellbow when sneezing than to do nothing at all.



AND GO TO THE DOCTOR INSTEAD OF GOING TO WORK DAMNIT!

Definitely don't go to work but also don't go straight to your doctor - follow local advice which for here is to call the national health non-emergency line and take their advice.

We've had a couple of cases of local interest where people have just pitched up at Minor Injury Units declaring themselves to have Coronavirus and have caused lockdown and general hysteria.

I would suggest generally that if you're ill, stay home from most of your engagements, regardless of your recent travel, and get some advice.

I work in a mental health clinic setting, and in theory people shouldn't turn up physically unwell - but they do, they turn up having puked their guts up all night (when they have a bug, obviously its different if related to their MH). Most of the time, the odd cold isn't a concern - but now those symptoms should mean you consider staying home or at least getting advice from wherever your going and giving them the option of asking you to stay home. Just in our small setting, you could easily be sat in the waiting area for over 15mins with 10-15 people, plus an hour in the room with a therapist, and the therapist and the room are going to see numerous other people that day.
The risk will be similar in a GP setting.

The risk in terms of fatality isn't that high but people in general can be more careful about where they take themselves when they're unwell and think about limiting their role in the spread.

 

[Urwumpe]

Something more serious now, it now arrived in my place, we have a confirmed case of it in the village next to us. Elementary school and Kindergarten had been closed.

Considering it happened during the carnival week in Germany, we have very few cases, but there is no state without at least one Corona case in Germany.

Most cases here are in Heinsberg, where an infected person was first rejected from the official agency to be tested after a visit in northern Italy, and then attended a carnival stage show.

Also, we have now ramped up the alert level far away in Lower Saxony a bit, most companies around VW had been activating special emergency boards to plan and prepare plans to ensure production even when there are cases in their company and people quarantined.

On the other hand, many people freak out here because of it. Supermarkets are running out of canned food and some criminals stole thousands of (useless) face masks from a local hospital after the prices for those sky-rocketed in the internet.

EDIT: And just arrived here as breaking news: The German government has banned the export of face masks.

 

[Notebook]

Had a chat to the troops from PM BJ yesterday, flanked by Chief Medical Officer and Chief Scientist.
Not too sensationalist with those two around and BJ knows there's no politics in it so no points there.
Advice seems to be wash your hands to "Happy Birthday to You" twice and...
https://vimeo.com/37081469


Edit:
Dramatic effect of coronavirus lockdowns seen from space

https://www.space.com/coronavirus-changes-pollution-over-china.html?utm_source=notification