Mega-Thread: Coronavirus Pandemic

[Benggaul]

Welp, wife just watched a neighbor get lifted down from the third floor on a stretcher and the medics were all wearing masks. Not sure if that's just a precaution or a confirmed case, but it's making me antsy.

[Leakage]

After talking to a local doctor about the Coronavirus, I have a question I hope someone can answer:
There were many other disease outbreaks in recent decades: Ebola, bird flu, pig flu off the top of my head. According to an infographic someone posted some pages ago, pig flu had 30x more deaths than Coronavirus. But there was no panic then, no worldwide shutdowns. In my country at the time of pig flu, corrupt politicians used the epidemic to steal some millions from the budget under pretense of vaccine, that was it. No quarantines, some people wore masks, business as usual besides that.

Why is there such fuss and disruption over a disease outbreak less deadly than previous ones?

Swine flu had a mortality rate of 0.1%, the same as regular flu. Coronavirus at the lowest estimates is 1%, which is 10x higher.

[Kathandira]

After talking to a local doctor about the Coronavirus, I have a question I hope someone can answer:
There were many other disease outbreaks in recent decades: Ebola, bird flu, pig flu off the top of my head. According to an infographic someone posted some pages ago, pig flu had 30x more deaths than Coronavirus. But there was no panic then, no worldwide shutdowns. In my country at the time of pig flu, corrupt politicians used the epidemic to steal some millions from the budget under pretense of vaccine, that was it. No quarantines, some people wore masks, business as usual besides that.

Why is there such fuss and disruption over a disease outbreak less deadly than previous ones?

Maybe there would had been less deaths if we took precautions more seriously.

If you feel that the amount of people dying is really low, good! That means we are doing a great job.

[telygroar]

Swine flu had a mortality rate of 0.1%, the same as regular flu. Coronavirus at the lowest estimates is 1%, which is 10x higher.

in fact its 2-4%, WHEN EVERY PATIENT IS TREATED.

[Forogil]

correct. my question stands.

Normally you are immune to the specific common cold virus(es) you got at least for the season.
But after a few years you may become less immune - a combination of the virus mutating and your immune system forgetting it - but for many viruses you are still "partially immune"; so the 2nd infection will be lighter.

[Cynep]

So, Coronavirus has mortality rate higher than swine flu but lower than Ebola. And in order to keep death count low, governments around the world take precautions so drastic that they create an economic crisis.

Do you guys expect similarly extreme measures every couple years from now on, for future epidemics which will definitely come?

[Rustedsaint]

After talking to a local doctor about the Coronavirus, I have a question I hope someone can answer:
There were many other disease outbreaks in recent decades: Ebola, bird flu, pig flu off the top of my head. According to an infographic someone posted some pages ago, pig flu had 30x more deaths than Coronavirus. But there was no panic then, no worldwide shutdowns. In my country at the time of pig flu, corrupt politicians used the epidemic to steal some millions from the budget under pretense of vaccine, that was it. No quarantines, some people wore masks, business as usual besides that.

Why is there such fuss and disruption over a disease outbreak less deadly than previous ones?

Mostly cause of how it can spread without the infected person showing signs of having it for a long period of time. Hell there are people who were infected without ever showing symptoms and recovered without realizing it. Plus the fatality/complications rate increases as the age bracket increases.
I feel a bit of the disruption in everyday life is due to the fact that the people most at risk are among the wealthiest and influence people in the world. Hell, look at the USA, all your current candidates for president are in the danger zone

[Forogil]

in fact its 2-4%, WHEN EVERY PATIENT IS TREATED.

It is likely about 1% - when every infected case is detected and confirmed; which isn't the case in many places.

That's why it's meaningless to look at the number of confirmed cases - too little testing in most countries; and the cases that aren't detected vary over time and between countries making it hard to make meaningful comparisons.

[Crissi]

So, Coronavirus has mortality rate higher than swine flu but lower than Ebola. And in order to keep death count low, governments around the world take precautions so drastic that they create an economic crisis.

Do you guys expect similarly extreme measures every couple years from now on, for future epidemics which will definitely come?

Its not just the mortality rate. Its the fact it can be transmitted so easily, and often by people who don't show any symptoms. We also dont have any vaccines for it to help prevent the load on the hospitals from being overwhelmed.

[Tartys]

Could you imagine it on the news and how that would drive more fear?

185k cases and 105k sick, dead, or not recovered is... not a great stat.

Italy is doing pretty bad.

Most of China's deaths were in Hubei 3111 out of 81k cases.

Italy is sitting on 2158 deaths on 27980 cases.

In Italy the covid cases are mostly concentrate in one region: Lombardia. Where we got 14.649 positiv to coronavirus and 1.420 deaths.
We got about 1.377 new sick per day, +202 death per day, +66 in Intensive Care. At this rate our concern is about Intensive Care...

The virus cause a bad Pneumonia that can triggering acute respiratory distress syndrome and the treatment involves mechanical ventilation in the intensive care unit (ICU). So, the problem is how many sick people your Health System can cure in Intensive Care... If the number of people that require hospitalization or ICU are higher that your Health System can afford, you die and your Health System collapse.

The perception that people have about Codvid-19 depends on their state of health. If you're lucky it's like a flu, if you're unlucky you die.

Because US got one of the worse Health System... it's better for you to stay at home and keep you safe. Its' the best think you can do by now.

[Forogil]

Why is there such fuss and disruption over a disease outbreak less deadly than previous ones?

It's not over yet, so the body count isn't in yet.
We had a vaccine for swine flu - we don't have one for this one yet.
It is a pandemi - in contrast to Ebola that have been limited to few countries.

[Yadryonych]

After talking to a local doctor about the Coronavirus, I have a question I hope someone can answer:
There were many other disease outbreaks in recent decades: Ebola, bird flu, pig flu off the top of my head. According to an infographic someone posted some pages ago, pig flu had 30x more deaths than Coronavirus. But there was no panic then, no worldwide shutdowns. In my country at the time of pig flu, corrupt politicians used the epidemic to steal some millions from the budget under pretense of vaccine, that was it. No quarantines, some people wore masks, business as usual besides that.

Why is there such fuss and disruption over a disease outbreak less deadly than previous ones?

Bird/Swine flu are only contracted by animals, there's no man-man transition for these. Also a flu virus is common and well-studied, vaccine is easy to make.
Ebola outbreak happened in Africa, the place least relevant to the world economy/travel/logistics. Coronavirus happened in one of the world's largest logistic hub and also a huge roundabout of people. That makes huge difference

[Themius]

In Italy the covid cases are mostly concentrate in one region: Lombardia. Where we got 14.649 positiv to coronavirus and 1.420 deaths.
We got about 1.377 new sick per day, +202 death per day, +66 in Intensive Care. At this rate our concern is about Intensive Care...

The virus cause a bad Pneumonia that can triggering acute respiratory distress syndrome and the treatment involves mechanical ventilation in the intensive care unit (ICU). So, the problem is how many sick people your Health System can cure in Intensive Care... If the number of people that require hospitalization or ICU are higher that your Health System can afford, you die and your Health System collapse.

The perception that people have about Codvid-19 depends on their state of health. If you're lucky it's like a flu, if you're unlucky you die.

Because US got one of the worse Health System... it's better for you to stay at home and keep you safe. Its' the best think you can do by now.

The problem with the US is we have system purely based on profit so hospitals don't build emergency just in case facilities for events that may occur every 10 years. We try to have as little beds as possible.

While a universal system tends to have a better ratio because they will prepare for the inevitable as it is in the nations best interest.

[Forogil]

There’s two strains of COVID-19.

No, there are 100+ variants of Covid-19, that you can possibly group in 3-4 different groups of variants.

[PhaelixWW]

So, Coronavirus has mortality rate higher than swine flu but lower than Ebola. And in order to keep death count low, governments around the world take precautions so drastic that they create an economic crisis.

Do you guys expect similarly extreme measures every couple years from now on, for future epidemics which will definitely come?

Ebola isn't contagious before symptoms appear. It also has a lower reproduction rate. Thus it is much more easily contained, as all contagious people can be identified and isolated.

That's completely unlike COVID-19.

Also, the deaths from COVID-19 will far outstrip those of the swine flu, we're just at the beginning of this pandemic, not the end.

[Cerilis]

I think this crisis is gonna bring out the worst in the general populace. Panic shopping is only the beginning. People are just selfish assholes.

[Forogil]

Trump is full on retarded if he can't even grasp that a reasonable response to COVID19 would have actually made him look good rather than the idiotic "muh numbers" bullshit we got from him.

And the strangest part is that it seemed as if he wanted low numbers to win the primaries in February?

[ranzino]

seems the firm im working for will close down for a week. better than work with ~ 100 people you cannot know where they were weeks ago and what THEIR relatives were up to. germany will grind to a halt soon, we are closing shops and prohibit activities left and right.


aaah, and only one package of toilet paper per household in my preferred supermarket. yay

[The Scourge of Azuremyst]

will close down for a week

Why only a week? All non-essential companies should be closing for the rest of the year, as thats roughly how long it will take to get over this.

[Cerilis]

seems the firm im working for will close down for a week. better than work with ~ 100 people you cannot know where they were weeks ago and what THEIR relatives were up to. germany will grind to a halt soon, we are closing shops and prohibit activities left and right.


aaah, and only one package of toilet paper per household in my preferred supermarket. yay

I wonder if they gonna enforce closing shops that are not needed. So far, the shop I work at only reduced working hours by one, even though it was already said shops should close.

...and in my supermarket it's 3 packages. Still out before I got one, hope they restock until the weekend or I'm down to wet wipes and shower. Damn hoarders...
They still had small packages at the checkout, but you could only get one if you bought water or beer, no idea whats up with those underhanded tactics. oO