Coronavirus...post your thoughts here...

[Fishmanic]

The Coronavirus is spreading rapidly worldwide.

• What is the present state of the virus in your country or state?
• Do you know anyone who is infected?
• What restrictions does your government have to prevent the spread of the virus?
• Are you making any preparations such as stocking up on food and buying masks?
• What is your opinion about the coronavirus..is it overblown; or do you feel there will be a pandemic?

Please stick to the facts and stay on topic. Please be able to back up your post with a link to a reputable source if necessary.

 

[Guppy10]

No no to all the above, personally I think it's overblown. Viruses occur all the time and I think uk has 1 case only.

 

[Essjay]

There have been 23 confirmed cases in the UK according to the BBC news website a few minutes ago. But not all UK citizens.
There is a teenaged boy currently in an isolation pod at my local hospital - he is awaiting the result of tests after falling ill with something that might be corona virus after a school trip to Italy.

The first two confirmed cases were a Chinese student and a parent who returned to the UK from China to attend a graduation ceremony at the university where my son works. It is now well past the incubation period and no-one in the town, or at the graduation ceremony has come down with it.

 

[CryptFan]

The us literally just announced the first death in Washington state. There are 63 cases in the us. I think it is a little blown out, 2,942 people have died from it compared to 56,000 dying from the common flu.

 

[Colin_T]

The Wuhan corona virus is in Australia and at the beginning of February 2020 there was at least 6 confirmed cases. Currently there are infected people in Queensland, New South Wales, South Australia and Western Australia. And possibly in Victoria.

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I don't know anyone who is infected.

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The Australian (federal) government is quarantining cruise ships off the coast and is now screening people coming into the country from China. Too little too late.

The federal government is spending money on researching the virus and trying to develop a vaccine, but that will take a long time.

The Western Australian (state) government is doing nothing and has actually let infected people out of quarantine. Apparently we don't even have enough surgical masks in this state. Typical idiots in politics. Too busy thinking about getting their names in the history books and not caring about the future.

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I'm prepping, stocking up on dry goods and general groceries so I can minimise the amount of time I need to spend at shopping centres if this goes bad. I'm not stocking too much but I plan on having 3 months worth of food and cleaning products, tissues, etc.

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The scientists in Australia have 2 thoughts on how this will go.
1) it will go nuts and kill heaps of people.
2) it will spread but not kill heaps, and it will become an annual flu virus that travels the globe like the current flu viruses do.

The common cold and flu viruses that are currently around are also corona viruses. However, they have been around for a long time and have been spread from person to person for a long time. This new Wuhan corona virus is believed to come from animals and has only just started to jump from human to human. This makes it much more dangerous than other commonly encountered corona viruses because our bodies have no experience fighting this virus and we have no anti-bodies for it.​

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My personal opinion is that it will spread rapidly around the world and the only way to stop it spreading is to quarantine every country and prevent all air travel to different countries for at least 3 months. That is unlikely to happen and because of that, it will spread around the globe on people flying to different countries.

The data that is available suggests it is highly contagious but doesn't have a high kill rate compared to other new viruses that have appeared over the last 20 years. Current information suggests it has a 2-3% kill rate, which simply means out of every 100 people who catch the virus, 2-3 people will die from it. Some of the other viruses that have popped up (eg: SARS) have a 50% or higher kill rate.

The problem with the current data is it might not be accurate. China claims it has been open and transparent in relation to this, but they with-held information about it for several months before saying "we might have a problem". Apparently this virus has been affecting people in Wuhan since at least October 2019.

I think it will spread rapidly around the globe and lots of people will contract it. However, I do not think it will kill lots of people like the Spanish Influenza virus did 100 years ago.

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I do have concerns about it because I have lung and heart problems and type 2 diabetes, all of which make it more likely I will die if I contract it. I had a heart attack in 2016 shortly after catching a flu virus from some sick French tourists who sneezed on me. I nearly died on the street because of that so I don't want to go thru that again.​

Most healthy people should be fine.

If you go to a doctor with flu like symptoms and the doctor tries to put you on anti-biotics for the flu, find another doctor or get a second opinion. Anti-biotics will not treat a virus and doctors should not be prescribing anti-biotics for people with any sort of virus.

 

[Irksome]

It seems to be more of a practice exercise in pandemic management than anything else. It seems to have a similar contagion rate of some flu and a likely death rate of less than 1% in a healthy population, like flu this gets worse if patients are over 75 or have health conditions. If you are one of those people that caution is sensible just like with any contagious disease. Viruses are amazing things when you can study them objectively.

 

[Colin_T]

Viruses are amazing things when you can study them objectively.

Most viruses are good and eat bacteria, but flu viruses are bad.

The Russians have been using Phage viruses to treat bacterial infections for over 100 years. Even today they are using them to treat drug resistant bacterial infections. The Phage virus eat the bacteria and stop it spreading.

We have thousands of viruses on our bodies and they help control the bacteria on us.

 

[TheTenthDoctor]

I think its over rated. There are more deaths from the flu than there are from corona virus. If we would suspend all flights from infected countries then this might die out faster.

 

[PheonixKingZ]

It’s getting ridiculous. They have had cruises where they let infected people off into other countries. This reminds me a lot about how when people first started moving to the USA. They got the native Americans sick.

I have already started to stock up on food, just in case there is a stay at home order issued.

 

[JuiceBox52]

The first case in the USA was announced today. Also, a teacher became sick (they said it was just the flu) but they closed the whole school for 3 days to disinfect it. Nobody does that for the flu.
People are saying that the death rate is like the flu "2%" the actual flu death rate is 0.1%
That would mean that if everyone in my church of 2000 people got the flu, 40 people would die, while almost know one knows someone who has died from the flu.
Scientists expect a minimum of a few million deaths by summer.

China is not reporting all of their deaths either, my dad used to be a teacher in china and is keeping in contact with his pupils there, it is bad.

My family has been stocking up on food. Lots of it.

At a nursing home in washington state (where I live) 52 out of 108 residents tested positive.
In wuhan they brought in 40 portable incinerators and 3 broke due to over use. One man was almost dead and they cremated him while he was still alive.

A high school student here in the USA tested positive even though he and nobody he new had traveled. They quarantined his family and all of his friends families.
San Francisco went into a state of emergency to prepare. Schools are shutting Down.

 

[Naughts]

I don't trust the numbers. At best they reflect the testing. So 23 in the UK of those who have been tested, which is only 620. We have only had corona specific diagnostic capability in the UK since 10th Feb, many countries don't have it or are just rolling it out.
They are "trying to trace people who may have been exposed" which is farcical given the degree of travel and the likely ease of passing it on.

My colleagues son arrived home from a school trip to Italy 6 days ago. He was very poorly. The family were not told to isolate until 4 days ago when he was tested. So 2 days where 3 members of the family could be carriers passing it on. At my place of work alone there are 570 people who could have been in contact with his mum, do the maths! Now he has been tested but won't know the results until Tuesday, a week later. If this is the norm the numbers are currently a week behind the test referrals. This feels like a very long wait for me, so it must be torture for the family on top of the upset of having a very sick 13 year old.

As far as preparations, I've bought extra paracetamol and ordered more asthma tablets and inhalers for my daughter. I read that masks were ineffective.

 

[JuiceBox52]

The us army has been given permission to take people to quarantine by force. They have prepared quarantine camps around the country. In china they are taking people away in sealed containers by force. There are 20 cities in italy locked down. The Pope is sick. The borders to Switzerland and Austria are closed. China is rushing to build another 19 mega hospitals. A city in California is protesting and suing the government because they tried to bring 50 infected people across the border without telling anyone

 

[Naughts]

The us army has been given permission to take people to quarantine by force. They have prepared quarantine camps around the country. In china they are taking people away in sealed containers by force

In the UK, planes land from China and the travellers are allowed to walk through arrivals as normal without so much as a temperature check!

 

[FishGuest5123]

The first case in the USA was announced today. Also, a teacher became sick (they said it was just the flu) but they closed the whole school for 3 days to disinfect it. Nobody does that for the flu.
People are saying that the death rate is like the flu "2%" the actual flu death rate is 0.1%
That would mean that if everyone in my church of 2000 people got the flu, 40 people would die, while almost know one knows someone who has died from the flu.
Scientists expect a minimum of a few million deaths by summer.

China is not reporting all of their deaths either, my dad used to be a teacher in china and is keeping in contact with his pupils there, it is bad.

My family has been stocking up on food. Lots of it.

At a nursing home in washington state (where I live) 52 out of 108 residents tested positive.
In wuhan they brought in 40 portable incinerators and 3 broke due to over use. One man was almost dead and they cremated him while he was still alive.

A high school student here in the USA tested positive even though he and nobody he new had traveled. They quarantined his family and all of his friends families.
San Francisco went into a state of emergency to prepare. Schools are shutting Down.

We have a number of confirmed cases in the U.S., 22 I believe. The first was about a month ago. Today’s was the first death from the virus.

 

[Sylvan]

The us army has been given permission to take people to quarantine by force. They have prepared quarantine camps around the country. In china they are taking people away in sealed containers by force. There are 20 cities in italy locked down. The Pope is sick. The borders to Switzerland and Austria are closed. China is rushing to build another 19 mega hospitals. A city in California is protesting and suing the government because they tried to bring 50 infected people across the border without telling anyone

Where on earth did you read that Switzerland and Austria have shut their borders? Austria temporarily closed the Italian border to test a train of passengers but have reopened it since. Shutting borders in the Schengen area has already been confirmed by the EU that it is not going to happen.
The Pope has not been confirmed with corona virus plus people still get regular colds and flu.
This is how you get people panicking.