COVID-19/Coronavirus Information and Support Thread (see OP for useful links)

  • Thread starter baldgye
  • 13,234 comments
  • 552,321 views
TJ13
nCoV is less deadly than Influenza.
Click to expand...
2019-nCoV is a specific viral strain. Influenza is an illness caused by any one of a number of different strains of influenza virus. You're essentially comparing Bengal tigers to every single member of the shark family (or rather superorder).

2019-nCoV is a betacoronavirus, and one of seven members of the orthocoronavirinae subfamily. They also includes SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV.

Influenza is caused by any one of at least 20 different influenza viruses in the orthomyxoviridae family. Some strains can cause fatality rates an order of magnitude higher than 2019-nCoV, some an order of magnitude lower.
 
TJ13
So every year we should announce the Flu being a national emergency here in the US if that's the case?
Click to expand...

While the last national emergency over the flu was in 2009 with pig flu, almost every year there's some sort of raised alert over the flu virus. Right now, I believe it's sitting at a 6.7% mortality rate for influenza and pneumonia in the US and it needs to get to 7.2% in order to be considered a pandemic emergency. I get weekly e-mails concerning the flu statistics in the US and in Utah and it's very much at the forefront of things from October through March.
 
I'm not convinced there's gonna be a global pandemic that wipes out humanity, or at least certainly not from an influenza virus. The Black Death decimated Europe in the Middle Ages, but sanitation and hygiene were virtually non-existent back then and it was centuries before we had any understanding of viral pathology and the germ theory of disease. By the time of the Spanish Flu were understood both of these far better and sanitation and hygiene were vastly improved, though still far off where we are today, and it hit an exhausted and depleted world at the tail end of WW1. These days, at least in the West, we're so aware of how these illnesses operate and public sanitation and hygiene are so good that we more than have the means to nip these things in the bud, as demonstrated by the fact that when this first began we knew that it was being caused by living in crowded, unsanitary conditions eating animals you shouldn't rather than vapors in the air or a punishment from the gods.
 
PeterJB
I'm not convinced there's gonna be a global pandemic that wipes out humanity, or at least certainly not from an influenza virus. The Black Death decimated Europe in the Middle Ages, but sanitation and hygiene were virtually non-existent back then and it was centuries before we had any understanding of viral pathology and the germ theory of disease. By the time of the Spanish Flu were understood both of these far better and sanitation and hygiene were vastly improved, though still far off where we are today, and it hit an exhausted and depleted world at the tail end of WW1. These days, at least in the West, we're so aware of how these illnesses operate and public sanitation and hygiene are so good that we more than have the means to nip these things in the bud, as demonstrated by the fact that when this first began we knew that it was being caused by living in crowded, unsanitary conditions eating animals you shouldn't rather than vapors in the air or a punishment from the gods.
Click to expand...
That is a very sensible post, IMO.

We in the first world have got this thing covered, no doubt. But the big problem is, what about the major parts of the world in which thin health care infrastructure fails to cope with a breakout? In China, their health care infrastructure is not bad, but they were slow off the mark in dealing honestly with reality, so they have apparently uncontrolled outbreaks in several provinces. They may be unable to avoid breakdowns in just-in-time supply chains to the rest of the world. Then what?
 
Dotini
That is a very sensible post, IMO.

We in the first world have got this thing covered, no doubt. But the big problem is, what about the major parts of the world in which thin health care infrastructure fails to cope with a breakout? In China, their health care infrastructure is not bad, but they were slow off the mark in dealing honestly with reality, so they have apparently uncontrolled outbreaks in several provinces. They may be unable to avoid breakdowns in just-in-time supply chains to the rest of the world. Then what?
Click to expand...

India and Africa are the ones that need to worry, when you consider how rampant something as easy to treat and prevent as Cholera is there.
 
PeterJB
India and Africa are the ones that need to worry, when you consider how rampant something as easy to treat and prevent as Cholera is there.
Click to expand...
Correct.
The whole reason for WHO to declare a global health emergency was to help places like India and Africa to better prepare. Should we send them our masks, medicines and doctors that we probably won't need? Convert cruise liners into floating hospitals? Or should we wait? What should we be doing?
 
Dotini
Correct.
The whole reason for WHO to declare a global health emergency was to help places like India and Africa to better prepare. Should we send them our masks, medicines and doctors that we probably won't need? Convert cruise liners into floating hospitals? Or should we wait? What should we be doing?
Click to expand...

It's more of a broad, long-term solution but universal access to clean, running water would be a start.
 
There’s now a confirmed case of a university student being infected by the virus here in Boston Massachusetts which I live like 20 - 30 minutes away from Boston.
 
Dotini
The whole reason for WHO to declare a global health emergency was to help places like India and Africa to better prepare. Should we send them our masks, medicines and doctors that we probably won't need? Convert cruise liners into floating hospitals? Or should we wait? What should we be doing?
Click to expand...

Monitor people traveling in from highly infected areas. For example, if you're flying in from Wuhan, I think you should be placed in quarantine for the maximum 14 day incubation period.

Also, wash your hands, cover your mouth when you sneeze or cough, and just don't be a grubby person. I worked in a hospital in the ER, OR, and on patient floors. I never contracted anything from a patient because I practiced hand hygiene. Finally, if you're sick, stay home and don't bring your plague to work, school, or where ever you go. Basically, to prevent Corona Virus, you essentially need to do the same things you should be doing to prevent getting the flu or any other communicable disease.

Oh, and don't drink Mexican beer. That'll get you for sure.
 
Thailand may have figured a combination of drugs to help combat nCoV.

Chinese woman tested negative after 48 hours being treated with a cocktail of anti-viral drugs treated for the flu and HIV.
Oseltamivir with lopinavir with ritonavir
Pending research results a cure or a reduction may have been found.
 
The Plan:
Beginning now, all passengers and all airplanes coming into the US will be subject to inflight rerouting to one of eight, soon to be 11, airports in the US. This will happen if it is discovered before or inflight that anyone on the plane has been in China in the last 14 days, or if inflight anyone is discovered to be sick on the airplane. Passengers will be subject to enhanced screening which will more than likely result in quarantine. US citizens having been in Hubei will be subject to 14 days automatic mandatory quarantine. US citizens having been in other provinces will ATM get to do this at home, albeit monitored. Foreign nationals having been in China in the past 14 days will likely be denied entry, except for US citizen family members, permanent residents and flight crew. Quarantine will likely be served in individual rooms on US military bases. Chinese stock markets open tonight, US markets tomorrow.
 
My understanding is that so far all but one of the fatalities have been in China. That may speak to inflated mortality rates.
 
Dotini
The Plan:
Beginning now, all passengers and all airplanes coming into the US will be subject to inflight rerouting to one of eight, soon to be 11, airports in the US. This will happen if it is discovered before or inflight that anyone on the plane has been in China in the last 14 days, or if inflight anyone is discovered to be sick on the airplane. Passengers will be subject to enhanced screening which will more than likely result in quarantine. US citizens having been in Hubei will be subject to 14 days automatic mandatory quarantine. US citizens having been in other provinces will ATM get to do this at home, albeit monitored. Foreign nationals having been in China in the past 14 days will likely be denied entry, except for US citizen family members, permanent residents and flight crew. Quarantine will likely be served in individual rooms on US military bases. Chinese stock markets open tonight, US markets tomorrow.
Click to expand...
Wait, is this something in place or something you're proposing?

I'm flying out of the country to Asia for 2 weeks here very shortly, & right now Japan has only urged people not to travel to China with no ban in place (edit*: there is a ban on anyone traveling back from Hubei). Though the odds of someone actually visiting in the time frame there are probably very low, it's the 2nd coldest month & someone coming back with a cold wouldn't appear abnormal.
 
PocketZeven
1. I am ethnic Han Chinese
2. I lived in china for 2 1/2 years
Click to expand...
Not entirely sure what that has got to do with what I said, so I’ll have to take a stab in the dark...

China’s population is so vast and its people’s cultures are so diverse, it’s impossible to arrive at the conclusion that only a very small and negligible part of the population eats wild animals simply based on your 2 1/2 years’ experience of living in China, which is likely to be centered in a particular place, and involve you encountering a very small sliver of the entire population. So I’d say your statement is probably no better than that of an article which was backed by numbers (albeit very roughly), or the statement of a farmer who actually engages in such trade, in terms of accuracy.

And that’s not even taking into consideration how long ago the experience you’re talking about is.

PocketZeven
3. HK is also notorious for their diet of birds nest and sharkfins etc.
Click to expand...
Sure, but do we consume it live, and are these foods equally dangerous for consumption, as in that they also have a high probability of carrying viruses that, once consumed, can easily be contagious between humans?

I’ve just read an article that says the long time it takes to manufacture birds’ nests makes them less likely to be transmitters of infectious deadly viruses than birds themselves when consumed. As for sharkfins, I did a quick search, and didn’t find any reports of them being carriers of infectious viruses. The closest I can find is that they contain metals that may be harmful to the human body (infertility, etc.), but that isn’t something that can be easily transmitted.

Besides, I haven’t seen HKers biting into raw sharkfins or birds’ nests and tearing them apart with their teeth alone.
 
McLaren
Wait, is this something in place or something you're proposing?

I'm flying out of the country to Asia for 2 weeks here very shortly, & right now Japan has only urged people not to travel to China with no ban in place (edit*: there is a ban on anyone traveling back from Hubei). Though the odds of someone actually visiting in the time frame there are probably very low, it's the 2nd coldest month & someone coming back with a cold wouldn't appear abnormal.
Click to expand...
It is my understanding that this is the plan which is or will be very shortly 100% in place. The WHO is not exactly for it, but that is understandable.

Danoff
My understanding is that so far all but one of the fatalities have been in China.
Click to expand...

Yes, a fact for which we are very grateful and double lucky. With "The Plan" in place, we hope like hell to keep it this way.

I would add that we will potentially experience a series of mini-epidemics scattered across the US. But if we can avoid overwhelming the health care infrastructure, then perhaps fatalities can be avoided altogether.



----------------------


Edit: I would add that Hong Kong has become a key concern for pilots and the airline industry.
 
Last edited:
First confirmed Coronavirus victim in Belgium. He or she is one of the 9 people repatriated from China.

"This person has been isolated and will be virus free in a few days". This is what I read on the website of "Het laatste nieuws" (the latest news). What kind of BS is that? So according to the journalist, isolate people infected with the Coronavirus and they will be virus free and cured. :ouch:
 
Still no cases in the Netherlands from what I see... Have the infected tried herbal remedies? The local sticky icky seems to be fending it off...
 
TenEightyOne
It seems that a Wuhan doctor who tried to raise an alert was censured by Chinese authorities, although he has now received an apology.
Click to expand...

Well, it seems the dam has broken which was holding back several ugly realities.

For instance, the issue of testing for nCoV.

Your BBC reported it this way,
Dr Li says he was tested several times for coronavirus, all of them came back negative.
On 30 January he posted again: "Today nucleic acid testing came back with a positive result, the dust has settled, finally diagnosed."
Click to expand...


My CNN said it this way,
On January 10, after unwittingly treating a patient with the Wuhan coronavirus, Li started coughing and developed a fever the next day. He was hospitalized on January 12. In the following days, Li's condition deteriorated so badly that he was admitted to the intensive care unit, and given oxygen support.
On February 1, he tested positive for coronavirus.
Click to expand...

https://www.cnn.com/2020/02/03/asia/coronavirus-doctor-whistle-blower-intl-hnk/index.html

Dr. Fauci first mentioned this problem in his address to the nation last week. See post #235 from page 8 of this thread.
 
FoRiZon
Yup, thats China allright bahahahaha.

7 ****ING YEARS!
Click to expand...
Yes, the government bears responsibility for more things than just social stability.

What we as people can do is wash hands, wear masks and social distancing. The definition of close contact is being within 6' (2 meters) for 10 minutes or longer.

 
baldgye
Yeah, that's hilarious.
Click to expand...
The govs is hilarious, I meant. They're the joke. Not people who died and suffer from it, for that I'll hope they'll get better.

It's what happens when nationalism and "face" is prioritized over people literally suffering and dying.

Police *cough* Stasi literally shows up to people houses.


Even their own citizens are starting to get distrustful. I think its been long time but this Corona drama is basically a tipping point.

Some language warning.



One of the silenced doctor who finally hailed as a hero after he got infected.
 
Last edited:
Danoff
Can you elaborate on this? I don't understand which direction you're taking this comment.
Click to expand...
No, I can't elaborate much, and I have no intention going anywhere with this particular comment. All I can add is that it pertains to the Chinese government's penchant for secrecy and censorship in lieu of dealing honestly, openly and effectively with reality. This catastrophe threatens China in many ways, and it will be a titanic challenge for the leadership to keep The Mandate of Heaven. President-for-Life Xi will be lucky to survive, at least politically. That is all.
 

Latest Posts

Back