Live statistics and coronavirus news tracking the number of confirmed cases, recovered patients, tests, and death toll due to the COVID-19 coronavirus from Wuhan, China. Coronavirus counter with new cases, deaths, and number of tests per 1 Million population. Historical data and info. Daily...
I look at a ~3% mortality rate for countries with a huge smoking and air quality problem to be not scary here. I'd heard in China almost 80% of men smoke like chimneys and have some sort of respiratory condition by 50 which puts them at risk for respiratory diseases like the coronavirus. Here, for healthy people, I'm not worried. 96+% chance of survival is pretty good.
The media is the cause of the panic however I get the need to ensure we all are informed. I try not to get overly concerned about things I can’t control and watching the news last night they talked about ways to stay safe.
Wash hands often.
Use hand sanitizer.
DON’T touch your face. That’s a big one.
Sometimes I can’t help but wonder if these viruses are designed and then spread to cause biological terror.
Just me speculating.
When I was still working, my company had high level meetings throughout the company on plans if the then Bird Flu became pandemic which was the "scare du jour" back then. People were to work from home, meetings and how they would be done were put in place, procedures written, company laptops provided, etc. I'm just wondering what my former company and others are going through now, concerning this virus & the news going around about it.
The media is the cause of the panic however I get the need to ensure we all are informed. I try not to get overly concerned about things I can’t control and watching the news last night they talked about ways to stay safe.
Wash hands often.
Use hand sanitizer.
DON’T touch your face. That’s a big one.
Sometimes I can’t help but wonder if these viruses are designed and then spread to cause biological terror.
Just me speculating.
The math says 7,000 people in my town could die from Coronavirus as opposed to 30 for flu. Regardless of what the media does, it’s a problem. Facts are facts.
I am of the thinking that there's no need to panic, yet. In terms of the death rate, we simply don't know what the denominator is, yet. The current estimates on mortality may be grossly inflated - or they may be grossly under - given that COVID-19 has yet to play out completely. Until we can get a handle on just how many mild cases are/were out there, ones where those affected recovered by themselves without presenting to medical care, we really don't know what this death rate truly is.
I think we do need to be cautious as many here have noted, but we should also keep perspective on the scenario at-large, which is one that's in active flux.
Similarly, as @Talyn noted above, we should remember that the "common" influenza has taken this year - and takes EVERY year - a much greater toll in our communities yet no-one even bats an eyelash. In-reality, this is what's unacceptable and shameful in a first-world society with modern healthcare.
Even so, this doesn't mean that we should be playing this event off as nothing, or making light of it as some sort of media grab for ratings and attention.
The problem isn't you - or any of "US" - doing the proverbial "carrying on daily life as-normal."
The problem is that by the estimates of most of the people I respect in the medical/scientific community (I'm a biological research scientist by trade, although, as I noted before, I'm neither a virologist nor involved in infectious diseases or public health), this bug is more than likely going to cause system-wide disruptions before it plays out.
This means -OUR- ability to get things that's as trivial as personal-hygiene products to items as important as crucial prescription medications may be compromised. This means that -OUR- children or grandchildren or nieces or nephews or friends' kids may face school-closures, and that this will translate to our ability to attend work. This means that -OUR- grocery stores and pharmacies may see lines which could cause severe inconvenience.
Not likely?
Keep in mind that every one of these problems above have ALREADY become the reality in several communities across the continental United States.
It's like driving in bad weather.
You can very well be the most careful and prudent driver on the road: but there's still all those other drivers to deal with.....
Unfortunately, what is rather likely now, since containment has all but failed, is that unless you are truly self-sustaining and without the need to interact with the general populace in any way, there will likely be impacts to your "daily life as-normal."
There's no need to panic. No need to be scared. It's just time to look at your resources, to be pragmatic, and to be prepared.
I remember when I was growing up, there was the “Swine Flu” going around, everybody got scared and got vaccinated for it, even my step mom got vaccinated. Seems like every so many years, some new disease sprouts up.
I am of the thinking that there's no need to panic, yet. In terms of the death rate, we simply don't know what the denominator is, yet. The current estimates on mortality may be grossly inflated - or they may be grossly under - given that COVID-19 has yet to play out completely. Until we can get a handle on just how many mild cases are/were out there, ones where those affected recovered by themselves without presenting to medical care, we really don't know what this death rate truly is.
I think we do need to be cautious as many here have noted, but we should also keep perspective on the scenario at-large, which is one that's in active flux.
Similarly, as @Talyn noted above, we should remember that the "common" influenza has taken this year - and takes EVERY year - a much greater toll in our communities yet no-one even bats an eyelash. In-reality, this is what's unacceptable and shameful in a first-world society with modern healthcare.
Even so, this doesn't mean that we should be playing this event off as nothing, or making light of it as some sort of media grab for ratings and attention.
The problem isn't you - or any of "US" - doing the proverbial "carrying on daily life as-normal."
The problem is that by the estimates of most of the people I respect in the medical/scientific community (I'm a biological research scientist by trade, although, as I noted before, I'm neither a virologist nor involved in infectious diseases or public health), this bug is more than likely going to cause system-wide disruptions before it plays out.
This means -OUR- ability to get things that's as trivial as personal-hygiene products to items as important as crucial prescription medications may be compromised. This means that -OUR- children or grandchildren or nieces or nephews or friends' kids may face school-closures, and that this will translate to our ability to attend work. This means that -OUR- grocery stores and pharmacies may see lines which could cause severe inconvenience.
Not likely?
Keep in mind that every one of these problems above have ALREADY become the reality in several communities across the continental United States.
It's like driving in bad weather.
You can very well be the most careful and prudent driver on the road: but there's still all those other drivers to deal with.....
Unfortunately, what is rather likely now, since containment has all but failed, is that unless you are truly self-sustaining and without the need to interact with the general populace in any way, there will likely be impacts to your "daily life as-normal."
There's no need to panic. No need to be scared. It's just time to look at your resources, to be pragmatic, and to be prepared.
Agreed TSiWRX. I read the John Hopkins dashboard was one of the best and up to date trackers out there. I also agree that it's to early to tell how bad this is going to be. From what I heard, the virus hasn't mutated yet, this will give time to produce the vaccine which I believe they are close to. That's a problem with the flu virus, it mutates quickly, making vaccines less effective against it year to year. And we should remember that the last major pandemic was the "Spanish" bird flu of 1918 which killed up to 50 million and infected over 500 million. We're overdue for another major pandemic (every 100 years or so), we've been lucky so far and hopefully this won't be it.
Agreed TSiWRX. I read the John Hopkins dashboard was one of the best and up to date trackers out there. I also agree that it's to early to tell how bad this is going to be. From what I heard, the virus hasn't mutated yet, this will give time to produce the vaccine which I believe they are close to. That's a problem with the flu virus, it mutates quickly, making vaccines less effective against it year to year. And we should remember that the last major pandemic was the "Spanish" bird flu of 1918 which killed up to 50 million and infected over 500 million. We're overdue for another major pandemic (every 100 years or so), we've been lucky so far and hopefully this won't be it.
From virologists that I know and have spoken to, in terms of mutations, it's more often that the virus becomes non-viable when that happens. There's very little DNA in there, so things that happen by-chance actually usually does not work in favor of the virus.
That said, the rapid mutation rate of some viruses leads to the reality that yup, all it takes is that one off chance......[besides, isn't it speculated that it's this rapidity of mutations that caused said virus to be able to successfully jump species to begin with?]
Racist memes target Chinese eating habits, but the real causes of the virus are more mundane.
foreignpolicy.com
Getting a bad case of food-poisoning? Yes.
Possibly picking up some kind of parasite? Again, yes.
But cross-species transmission is not necessarily linked to *eating* that species. Bats, since we're discussing them here, are known carriers of rabies here in North America, and since we as Americans don't typically eat them (well, Ozzy excepted, but then again, he's not really American, either.....), it should stand that we shouldn't pick up any diseases from them, right? Obviously, that's not the case, as rabies transmission from bats to humans typically occur (from mishandling) via bites, but also much more rarely thorough aerosolization (and subsequent absorption via our mucus membranes - again, the importance of not touching your face and washing your hands comes into play) of bat saliva or urine.
To the best of my knowledge, the exact manner in which the inter-species jump which precipitated the COVID-19 outbreak is not yet known.
That said, is food-safety much worse in many Asian countries than it is here in the US? Undeniably.
Are conditions in which livestock and domestic animals kept worse than here in the US? Again, certainly.
Can these problems cause disease in humans? Again, without question.
Is the population density - as well as the number of homeless (due to often shocking economic disparity: think San Francisco, but much, much worse) - in the new metropolises of many of these still-developing countries (not just China) a public health concern? For sure.
And do these things worry me? Yes, they do.
But what helps us fight disease and paranoia is knowledge and understanding, not grasping on to the latest meme.
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www.worldometers.info
) in to fake news......
), it should stand that we shouldn't pick up any diseases from them, right? Obviously, that's not the case, as rabies transmission from bats to humans typically occur (from mishandling) via bites, but also much more rarely thorough aerosolization (and subsequent absorption via our mucus membranes - again, the importance of not touching your face and washing your hands comes into play) of bat saliva or urine.
