Coronavirus.

Carole said:

The death rate percentage from the common flu is higher, so if you were to suggest the same thing above, you’d be shooting more people, but there’s no panic over normal flu.

Please see the article below.


https://www.globalresearch.ca/flu-bigger-concern-wuhan-virus-grabs-headlines/5701932

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This is additional to influenza, not instead of.

Influenza is way beyond full control, in the sense of having a possibility to eliminate it.

We have had the opportunity to largely stop this, is we have with SARS and MERS.

Health staff are largely immunised against the likely seasonal flu strains. They will succumb to this in large numbers, if it becomes popular.

This, from the Guardian live blog is what I've been thinking for some time.

“It is not surprising that we have seen additional cases today. The estimate from our work at Imperial College London is that about 1% of infections with the virus responsible for covid-19 are fatal, so the total of 12 deaths to date in Italy suggests many more than the 470 cases detected so far.

Our best estimate would be over 1000 cases. Each undetected case creates at least the potential for onward spread. This combined with frequent travel to and from affected regions, means that all countries are at risk of detecting cases both in travellers and those they came into contact with.”

I wouldn't go to the doctor's with a cold so others wouldn't either. I haven't got a compromised immune system so am yet to panic.

tek-monkey said:

Or tell the west they have oil, we'd liberate the shit out of them then bugger off when we realise it's not profitable.

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To be honest I think the idea of us 'liberating the shit' out of China stands about as much chance of me chatting up Seven of Nine in the lounge of the Prince of Wales pub.

(Note: I mentioned the lounge, not the bar. I've always been super swarf.)

Panic over. We're all safe .... in fact 'tremendously safe.'

Trump has appointed Mike Pence as the "Coronavirus Czar."

Meanwhile in Spain (and apologies for the translation - I'm sure you'll get the gist) ....

Quarantine a Whorehouse with 86 clients after the positive in Coronavirus of a prostitute
..... The positive for Coronavirus of this company girl has forced the early morning today to quarantine the 86 customers who were inside the building at that time. The employee, who is now admitted to the University Hospital, had slept with several clients that same night. ....

https://cerebrother.com/en-cuarente...el-positivo-en-coronavirus-de-una-prostituta/

F**k that!

SEND ......................................... for Coronavirus Repair Man !!!

(What a horrible thought, Mike Pence wearing his underpants over his trousers .... )

BobClay said:

I can't buy into the 'weapon' idea. For sure biological weapons exist, but if China were to have launched this 'weapon' to cure their Hong Kong problem it seems to me that would be a Pyrrhic victory given the damage it's doing to their economy.

They'd be far better off driving a couple of hundred tanks across the border and telling the rest of the world it's none of their business so STFU.

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China would just shoot them if they really wanted to. They don’t care if people see them in a bad light, nobody is going to pull out all manufacturing from China overnight

The thing with a new thing is that if you can stop it in its tracks it won't be something again and again later.

Influenza is out there, and will metamorphasize itself from before now until the end of time.

Coronavirus - this iteration of it - will now roam free, killing people that it otherwise wouldn't have done had it been contained before it was able to do so.

And it will now keep coming back to do so sporadically, because we have failed to contain it.

If we could go back in time and contain the Influenza virus in the location it first emerged in, we would probably try as much as we might to do just that, but we can't, so we just kind of live with that one now.

The battle now is if we want to live with another one.

The World generally tends to think that it doesn't want to, really, so can we stop that?

The answer is now almost certainly, NO

So now we live in a world where Covid-19 is just another thing, amongst many other things, that is something that is potentially lethal.

Which is nice.

Looking at reports in New Scientist & BBC the current answer seems to be "we don't know" but "don't panic yet".

Containment seems to be failing, there are too many cases that cannot be traced back to a known source. There is no knowledge of source for many of South Korea's 900 cases nor for many of Italy's 250 cases.

Some countries such as Singapore seem to be detecting most of the cases from China that epidemiologists would expect. Looking at infections detected per passenger flight suggests that other countries are only detecting only a third as many as Singapore. This means infected people are getting through the net

We don't know how many people are/have been infected. Iran has reported 95 cases. Working back from the number of people found infected on flights from Iran suggests that the real figure is around 1600 to 2400.

Because we don't really know how many people are infected it is difficult to work out infection rates or death rates so figures quoted are largely guestimates.

This country still has some chance of containment but we may have to move to a mitigation phase, closing schools etc & other social distancing measures, not preventing spread but slowing it down.

Unlike flu no-one has immunity to this virus. If it spreads it will probably become like flu, a widely circulating virus that most of us will acquire some immunity to. But before then the human cost will be high, particularly amongst the over 60s and people with certain pre-existing medical conditions.

Your signature could easily have been part of your post

The point is that this is new, so where it will go, and what it will do, is still largely not known.

Fatality rates are still almost a guess rather than anything established.

It is always better to have and not need, than to need and not have.

Not sure how true this is, posted on another forum by someone I know, and claims to have originated in China. The bit about metal surfaces is pretty much true, notorious for retaining live bacteria & viruses for a long time, same for most materials used for kitchen worktops & plastics. However copper and wood are surfaces which do not retain live bacteria & viruses.

Heat sensitivity of the virus is not well determined

Shops are running out of hand sanitiser

There is now a serious shortage of facemasks in China. Most facemasks are produced in China.

The supplied notes -

1. If you have a runny nose and sputum, you have a common cold
2. Coronavirus pneumonia is a dry cough with no runny nose.
3. This new virus is not heat-resistant and will be killed by a temperature of just 26/27 degrees. It hates the Sun.
4. If someone sneezes with it, it takes about 10 feet before it drops to the ground and is no longer airborne.
5. If it drops on a metal surface it will live for at least 12 hours - so if you come into contact with any metal surface - wash your hands as soon as you can with a bacterial soap.
6. On fabric it can survive for 6-12 hours. normal laundry detergent will kill it.
7. Drinking warm water is effective for all viruses. Try not to drink liquids with ice.
8. Wash your hands frequently as the virus can only live on your hands for 5-10 minutes, but - a lot can happen during that time - you can rub your eyes, pick your nose unwittingly and so on.
9. You should also gargle as a prevention. A simple solution of salt in warm water will suffice.
10. Can't emphasise enough - drink plenty of water!
THE SYMPTOMS
1. It will first infect the throat, so you'll have a sore throat lasting 3/4 days
2. The virus then blends into a nasal fluid that enters the trachea and then the lungs, causing pneumonia. This takes about 5/6 days further.
3. With the pneumonia comes high fever and difficulty in breathing.
4. The nasal congestion is not like the normal kind. You feel like you're drowning. It's imperative you then seek immediate attention.

Noah said:

But before then the human cost will be high, particularly amongst the over 60s and people with certain pre-existing medical conditions.

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Rather scary as hubby has heart failure, and both of us are over 60

(And thinking to myself....no use his works organising working from home to avoid catching it, when he's gone off to a football match, with a coach load of people, visiting crowded pubs full of people... and will still keep doing so as long as the matches are taking place)


I had a bottle of hand sanitiser for years in the cupboard, and slung it out last month thinking I'd never use it ..

Still got the Japanese face mask at home. (left behind by sons ex girlfriend). Might look a bit out of place in Stafford with it though Might start wearing a scarf wrapped around my face when shopping, several people just sneezed and coughed into the air right by me in shops today . Rather scary thinking how hard it's going to be to avoid coming into contact with it if so many people just don't care. (The number of unhygienic people I've seen not even washing their hands after the visiting the public loos this week is rather scary as well ! )

Son has just told me some disturbing facts he's found out from people in China as to things going on over there unreported in our news ... Bloody scary!

So, in the past week I’ve gone from being really complacent, then to becoming more aware, to this point in time, now, where I’m really taking it seriously.

I’ve always been pretty good on the hygiene front, so all the advice about washing hands frequently, don’t touch lift buttons or handrails or whatever, I’ve always done that anyway.
However, I’m just extra aware now.

After stocking up the cupboards for a no deal Brexit, then relaxing and starting to use the stock, I’m now in the process of restocking, well, just in case we aren’t permitted to go anywhere for a while and are forced to self isolate.
Just had a massive shop today, filled the cupboards and freezer. Stuff that I wouldn’t usually buy such as tinned fruit and vegetables just in case.
Stocked up on pet food too.

Carole said:

So, in the past week I’ve gone from being really complacent, then to becoming more aware, to this point in time, now, where I’m panicking like mad.

I’ve always been pretty good on the hygiene front, so all the advice about washing hands frequently, don’t touch lift buttons or handrails or whatever, I’ve always done that anyway.
However, I’m just extra aware now.

After stocking up the cupboards for a no deal Brexit, then relaxing and starting to use the stock, I’m now in the process of restocking, well, just in case we aren’t permitted to go anywhere for a while.
Just had a massive shop today, filled the cupboards and freezer. Stuff that I wouldn’t usually buy such as tinned fruit and vegetables just in case.
Stocked up on pet food too.

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Same here. Didn't think much about it until the past few days, when it's suddenly become rather scary.

I don't touch buttons , handles and handrails etc either if I can help it. Being extra careful now (although didn't think about it until afterwards when using a pen handed to me to sign a form for my currency , then realised how many dirty fingers might have been holding that pen beforehand)

I stocked up last night after son telling me the shelves by him were bare. . Most of it is stuff we use anyway, so just bought well in advance for months. But also bought things like Pasta and sauces that we don't usually have, but looking forwards to trying something new. First time for years I've let my tissue box stock get so low, as the good ones I usually buy were discontinued last year. Tissue box shelf was empty in Aldi last night, except for the one battered box which I grabbed.

It's probably worth keeping a sense of perspective about it as well.

I'm not worried about it at all on a personal level, because it will almost certainly be nothing but a not even particularly bad cold for me.

I am, however, genuinely worried about my father - he is 80+ years old and has existing respiratory problems - because i have genuine reasons to be worried about him. I'm almost certain that he will be a casualty if it takes hold. And i'm pretty sure it will take hold.

My father used to subscribe to the New Internationalist which had, each month, a 'profile' of a 'developing (though i think in the early days they were still called a 'third world') country'.

To this day i remember that the 'life expectancy' of a US citizen was 74 years old - the highest of any in the world - and the lower life expectancy of the rest of the world, compared to it, was an indication of their backwardness.

74 doesn't even seem that old anymore, but i'm afraid it very much is - prepare yourself for some goodbyes.