Your reactions/thoughts on COVID-19

[DixonTheAdversary 1,634]

I'm not worried, we as a race have come back from a whole lot worse. I wash my hands, shower regularly and eat fairly healthy, so I feel that I'll be fine. Plus, I don't really go anywhere, so there's that...

[Guest]

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Edited May 5, 2020 by Guest
nah

[CypherHoof 26,483]

24 minutes ago, Cyra said:

I'm not an expert when it comes to microbiology and I am far away from being a scientist.

BUT

I am delighted to say that a friend of mine who's studying Biology at my university told me that her microbiology professor told her that the corona virus isn't that much distinguishable from the common flu, in fact, people are dying daily from the common flu and noone bats an eye, boom some weird COVID-19 virus appears and everyone looses their minds. Of course it's counterintuitive to say that the corona virus is harmless, but I think the media is spreading fear upon us, the people.

Using proper producs such as soap and not being near sick people or touching your mouth or nose before washing your hands will reduce the threat of the virus to the minimum.

From what I read from various scientists, it is pretty similar ot the Flu in terms of countermeasures, and more common symptoms (although it can also affect your breathing), but is significantly more lethal (at least 10x more, possibly as high as 30x for some vulnerable groups) and the key problem - we don't yet have a vaccine for it, while we produce Flu vaccines routinely every year.

And that's a big one. back in 1918, with significantly less people in the world, a flu pandemic killed 50 million people. in 2009, a similar flu pandemic (but with the advent of modern immunizations and hospital supportive treatments) killed "only" 18 thousand, despite a order of magnitude more people being in the world, and faster transport allowing faster spread of the contagion.

So no, the current panic isn't justified - but a bit of fear, avoiding packing people into events, and sensible hygene, could reduce the infection rate sufficiently the hospitals can cope and buy the research community time to find and distribute a vaccine.

 

[Phosphor 11,535]

Corona virus hasn't been on my mind lately. I've heard about hand sanitizer and toilet paper being out of stock, but still, not worried. I always stay stocked up on necessities because of hurricanes so I should be fine. Living in a rural area is a big plus too, since there's not a lot of people.

[Prospekt 11,028]

My university has finally followed the example of many others across the United States and shut down all in-person classes effective tomorrow. The plan is to go with online instruction only until early April but that's not likely to happen now.

Confirmed cases are skyrocketing here in Colorado and we just got our first death. The actual number of cases is likely much higher due to 1. asymptomatic and mild cases, 2. bad testing criteria causing people to be refused doctors notes when they are showing all the most common symptoms, and 3. hundreds of people waiting on test results from a new facility. The governor has prohibited gatherings of 250 people or more, National Guard medics are about to be deployed, public schools are closing, stores are emptying. People are freaking out more than they ever did with H1N1.

Anyways... I'm hanging in there. I think we'll get through this but the situation is likely to only get crazier for the time being and predicting when exactly it's going to let up in the US is a crapshoot. 

[Early Sunsets 2,108]

The worldwide reactions to it are more inconvenient than the illness itself. I stay home all day, so it's not a big danger to me personally (yet, anyway). I want to start traveling more when I get my motorcycle, so hopefully there's a vaccine by then, or it goes away, or whatever. I'm a rather unhealthy person, so while I'd probably survive if I got it, I don't imagine it would be a good time.

[TBD 17,263]

I found this sad but yet funny because now people are selling essential things on ebay for a ridiculous price. The sellers would empty the shelves just to make profit out of these desperate people.  And the buyers are getting rip off because they're desperate. And when they're desperate they act like savages. Can't say how it is over in different countries but this the US for ya.  People are even stealing toilet paper and hand sanitize at my workplace.  Let alone, just plain rude and aggressive while using 'Coronavirus' as an excuse for their savagery. Man, human are at their worst.

This is what our government should have done. But unfortunately, we're not a socialist. We are too worry about our economic when clearly it's not dying (yet). Unless the entire stores /profit making companies businesses is closed down then we should be worrying about our economic. But since US love making money more than this, then we have nothing to worry about. (last part is sarcasm.) 

 

 

[Dreambiscuit 10,761]

All illnesses are bad, there’s nothing good about any of them and some are worse than others. But this is part of living on planet earth and all anyone can do is take the best precautions they can. This doesn’t mean going off the deep end; just guarding one’s self accordingly in higher risk areas and keeping a level head. In any case, I don’t think this virus will last very long because it’s effecting big businesses (sports, media, tourism) and those companies have the clout and resources to get things done. As much as they all claim to care about humanity, the bottom line is how many dollars humanity is suddenly not putting into their coffers. Necessity is the mother of invention, and money is the necessity the big-wigs care about. Hence, there will be vast measures taken and I don’t think the virus is going to go the distance against it. Unfortunately there will probably be a bulge in prices and fees after it’s all over to recoup the losses from the recent closures in these areas.  

[Fluttershutter 2,650]

This is all getting totally ridiculous.

[Pentium100 2,265]

Gyms, concerts, night clubs are banned. Bars and cafes have to close at 22 hours. Poland has closed its borders. My country has just closed its borders as well. A returning citizen will be allowed in, but will have to isolate himself for two weeks, but foreigners will not be allowed in.

Lorries will be allowed to deliver cargo, but health of the drivers will be checked. 

Anyone currently away are urged to return ASAP, not wait for their vacation to end.

Up until now not everyone was checked for the virus, only if he ad recently returned from Italy etc and was showing multiple symptoms. When that policy changes I expect the number of cases to go up fast.

[TotallyNotNyx 15,571]

Uno what's annoying. Its only recently that governments have made it mandatory to have checks done at airports and stuff. If they had reacted earlier, the spread of the disease could have been reduced. 

[Here No Longer 5,281]

After watching a segment of Joe Rogan's podcast that was about it, I can see why it's quite serious. I still do have my suspicions of China on this one, but it's becoming clear that this is not something to take lightly. All the fearmongering from the corporate news media made me to believe this really wouldn't be a serious issue. But hearing it on the Joe Rogan podcast where he's talking with an actual expert on the matter, and hearing THEM say it may infect what adds up to be a whole 3% of the ENTIRE population and kill almost 600,000 (which I think is really a stretch especially after he says a "conservative" estimate) when this is all said and done in a few MONTHS...

 

What the f*** is wrong with China though, really? This outbreak starts for them LAST YEAR, and they don't even mention it to anyone else for 2 MONTHS? And Taiwan actually HANDLES the problem in that time (according to a China Uncensored video)? Democracy- 1 Authoritarianism- 0.

Edited March 14, 2020 by Angel_Dust

[I used to be a stranger 7,994]

I'm confident I won't get COVID19 but I have done some preparatory grocery shopping in case work locks me out for a couple of weeks. Vancouver is the most likely place to get sick within Canada.

My full expectation is I'll get access to a vaccine before I'd actually come down with the sickness.

[Olly 1,012]

is this a different thing than the current trendy disease or are we calling it something else now

[CypherHoof 26,483]

3 minutes ago, Olly said:

is this a different thing than the current trendy disease or are we calling it something else now

More specific description - there are an entire class of corona viruses, but the one that is currently a pandemic is covid-19.

[Denim&Venöm 19,880]

People are over reacting way the freaking hell out of proportion. Symptom wise it's no more dangerous than the flu. You only have to worry if your really young, really old or immuno-compromised. Yet everyone is treating it like the black death. So many industries and livelihoods are being impacted because people are overreacting. 

It makes sense for Japan, Taiwan, S. Korea, Thailand and the Philippians to bunker down due to their close proximity, dense urban populations and high minorities of elderly. It's reasonable for some countries in Europe to do the same for similar reasons. but for places like the UK, Canada & the US to be freaking out, having supply shortages, declaring emergencies, forbidding mass public gatherings, issuing travel bans, doing all but declare martial law? Now that is blowing this out of proportion. 

Scaring people into thinking that this is the end of days is going to do more lasting harm than the virus ever could hope for. 

[Olly 1,012]

35 minutes ago, Denim&Venöm said:

People are over reacting way the freaking hell out of proportion. Symptom wise it's no more dangerous than the flu. You only have to worry if your really young, really old or immuno-compromised. Yet everyone is treating it like the black death. So many industries and livelihoods are being impacted because people are overreacting. 

It makes sense for Japan, Taiwan, S. Korea, Thailand and the Philippians to bunker down due to their close proximity, dense urban populations and high minorities of elderly. It's reasonable for some countries in Europe to do the same for similar reasons. but for places like the UK, Canada & the US to be freaking out, having supply shortages, declaring emergencies, forbidding mass public gatherings, issuing travel bans, doing all but declare martial law? Now that is blowing this out of proportion. 

Scaring people into thinking that this is the end of days is going to do more lasting harm than the virus ever could hope for. 

This happens every few years. When I was little it was mad cow disease, then later a few others, zika, swine flu, remember ebola? ahhh memories. 

[joanro 247]

I think people have reacted to the virus the way they have because it has been mishandled since the very beginning. The President and his administration have known about the virus since at least late January of this year. They have had about six weeks to start actively doing something about the virus and are only now beginning to take it seriously. It did not help that Trump and his administration downplayed the virus from the beginning. In fact, he initially claimed it would go away with warmer weather in April and that it was a hoax created by the Democrats to make him look bad. People are literally dying and he's more concerned with being re-elected. His administration also refused testing kits for the Coronavirus from the WHO because they wanted the CDC to create their own testing kits. This caused a delay in the testing kits being available to the people. As of right now, I think about 18,000 people have been tested for the virus. Meanwhile, South Korea has been testing about 10,000 people a day. The United States is supposed to be one of the greatest Countries in the world yet we are woefully unprepared to deal with this? Really? It just blows my mind. Also, people strictly blaming the media is also kind of mind-blowing to me. I think the President should be held accountable for how they have handled the situation. People will praise him for the good, but refuse to blame him for the bad.

Not to sound negative, but that's what has been on my mind since this whole thing started. However, I don't think things are all doom and gloom. I do think things will get better, but we are not off to the best start right now.

Edited March 15, 2020 by joanro

[Nsxile 27,635]

47 minutes ago, CypherHoof said:

More specific description - there are an entire class of corona viruses, but the one that is currently a pandemic is covid-19.

The virus that causes the disease is actually known as Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2).

As for my thoughts on the virus, in the UK virtually nothing is being done to contain/slow the spread of the disease - It is also clear Boris Johnson has no idea how herd immunity works, considering that herd immunity involves roughly 90% of the population being vaccinated against the virus, rather than the 60% of the population catching the virus, and 20% of the infected overwhelming our hospitals (there is also the risk of the virus mutating if enough people are infected, and creating another (potentially more severe) strain)... Which will lead to greater fatalities than is currently predicted imo. Also, the advice of only washing your hands for about 20 seconds is of only partial benefit, as the virus's primary method of transmission is via air by breathing in aerosolised droplets containing the virus. If anything, we should be following what mainland Europe and Ireland is doing e.g. shutting schools, closing non essential public spaces, restricting flights and banning mass gatherings of 100 or more.

3 minutes ago, Denim&Venöm said:

People are over reacting way the freaking hell out of proportion. Symptom wise it's no more dangerous than the flu. You only have to worry if your really young, really old or immuno-compromised. Yet everyone is treating it like the black death. So many industries and livelihoods are being impacted because people are overreacting. 

It makes sense for Japan, Taiwan, S. Korea, Thailand and the Philippians to bunker down due to their close proximity, dense urban populations and high minorities of elderly. It's reasonable for some countries in Europe to do the same for similar reasons. but for places like the UK, Canada & the US to be freaking out, having supply shortages, declaring emergencies, forbidding mass public gatherings, issuing travel bans, doing all but declare martial law? Now that is blowing this out of proportion. 

Scaring people into thinking that this is the end of days is going to do more lasting harm than the virus ever could hope for. 

It isn't "no more dangerous than the flu", especially as it causes shortness of breath and attacks the lungs if it reaches an advanced stage; also the flu only has a mortality rate of 0.01% vs SARS-Cov-2/COVID19, which has a mortality rate of 3.4% at current estimates (and will likely rise as hospitals are overwhelmed in the coming weeks and months). And the UK and the US should be following mainland Europe and Ireland's approach to this if they want to reduce the rate of infections, not overwhelm their health services and keep the mortality rate lower than it likely is going to be. Doing nothing is not a valid strategy for dealing with this.

I agree that the virus certainly won't be the end of the world though, but it will still likely have a negative effect on it.

45 minutes ago, Olly said:

This happens every few years. When I was little it was mad cow disease, then later a few others, zika, swine flu, remember ebola? ahhh memories. 

How many of the above viral infections became pandemics? Of those pandemics, how many of them had a fatality rate above 1%?

0. (Swine flu only had a fatality rate of roughly 0.0002% and infected an estimated 700 million - 1.4 billion people).

23 hours ago, Angel_Dust said:

THEM say it may infect what adds up to be a whole 3% of the ENTIRE population and kill almost 600,000 (which I think is really a stretch especially after he says a "conservative" estimate) when this is all said and done in a few MONTHS...

Actually, in one of the worst case scenarios, it'll likely infect an estimated 60% (4.2 billion (assuming a population of exactly 7 billion)) of the world's population and kill (assuming the current fatality estimates are correct) 3.4% of those infected (142.8 million in total).

[Megas 27,960]

7 hours ago, joanro said:

I think people have reacted to the virus the way they have because it has been mishandled since the very beginning. The President and his administration have known about the virus since at least late January of this year. They have had about six weeks to start actively doing something about the virus and are only now beginning to take it seriously. It did not help that Trump and his administration downplayed the virus from the beginning. In fact, he initially claimed it would go away with warmer weather in April and that it was a hoax created by the Democrats to make him look bad. People are literally dying and he's more concerned with being re-elected. His administration also refused testing kits for the Coronavirus from the WHO because they wanted the CDC to create their own testing kits. This caused a delay in the testing kits being available to the people. As of right now, I think about 18,000 people have been tested for the virus. Meanwhile, South Korea has been testing about 10,000 people a day. The United States is supposed to be one of the greatest Countries in the world yet we are woefully unprepared to deal with this? Really? It just blows my mind. Also, people strictly blaming the media is also kind of mind-blowing to me. I think the President should be held accountable for how they have handled the situation. People will praise him for the good, but refuse to blame him for the bad.

Not to sound negative, but that's what has been on my mind since this whole thing started. However, I don't think things are all doom and gloom. I do think things will get better, but we are not off to the best start right now.

There's also the fact that he disbanded the White House Pandemic Office two years ago

Edited March 16, 2020 by Megas
Remembered the proper names

[Prospekt 11,028]

I'm more anxious about the inevitable lockdowns in the US than the virus itself. It's beginning to look like we may be seeing that on a regional level soon, and since I'm in Colorado (which is a top 5 state in confirmed cases as of today), it's likely that my area will be affected. I don't live in Denver, but I live in a suburb.

I'm worried about my girlfriend who lives in what may be one of the most highly infected counties in the state as of now and is going to be out of a stable income and struggling big time unless either the owners at her restaurant job are generous or a paid leave law somehow magically comes into effect.

I worry that demand for necessities (like food, household/hygiene products, and yes, toilet paper) will be too much for stores and supply chains to keep up with if we were to get a mandatory quarantine notice... stores are already struggling to restock after the panic of the past week left entire aisles empty.

So, as I hang around at home for spring break from college, I feel a bit as if I'm already in a sort of quarantine. I haven't shown symptoms or come into contact with anybody known to have COVID-19, but I can't see myself being out and about right now apart from a lone dentist appointment. Just preparing for the inevitable because leadership is starting to wake up and see how bad the situation is in countries whose healthcare systems have already been hit hard... they're saying it could be just as bad here if we don't greatly impose social distancing laws soon and consequently "flatten the curve" of exponential growth.

Whether or not the curtailing of freedoms is actually the morally right decision is a discussion for the debate pit, rather than here. But these measures are already going into effect in parts of the world, so I think it's only a matter of time before we start to see restrictions beyond just social gatherings and restaurants getting shut down.

[TBD 17,263]

They’re planning to have a 14 days shutdown where everything will be close. 
 

I cannot wait for the street to be empty 

 

Then I will go out, turn up the music, and 

 

[Jeric 46,871]

On 3/12/2020 at 6:39 PM, CypherHoof said:

while we produce Flu vaccines routinely every year.

Only based on existing strains that we anticipate will be the strain that hits in the upcoming flue season. They make a statistical guess and can be wrong. The years that they are wrong flu deaths are high. 

[CypherHoof 26,483]

24 minutes ago, Jeric said:

Only based on existing strains that we anticipate will be the strain that hits in the upcoming flue season. They make a statistical guess and can be wrong. The years that they are wrong flu deaths are high. 

Yup. But the first part of my sentence was pointing out we don't HAVE a vaccine for this, and even for normal flu, we invest time and money in trying to get a vaccine ready ahead of time.  As you say, on years we get it wrong, the cost is high... and here, we didn't even have a chance to start.

[Jesse Terrence 2,970]

I really hate to be the party popper, guys. I really hate to come and cause polemics... but I really gotta say it's ludicrous to see this kind of alarmism on the forums too.

The coronavirus has only 4% of mortality rate. This means, only 4% of the infected die from it. As a trivial fact (if not for comparison purposes too), coronavirus is less deadly than your average seasonal flu in brute numbers.

We're talkin' too, that those numbers are USA's and not worldwide.

Another interesting fact is that most of the deaths in Italy were seniors age-wise. 60 years old and upwards. In other countries another pattern emerges, being the next ones in death rate children bellow 10 years old and AIDS, cancer, diabetic and hipertense patients. This means, the coronavirus is unlikely to kill a healthy person, but rather inmune-supressed people like elderly, chronic-degenerative patients and early age children are the ones who have the most chances to die.

Unfortunately, given this illness is new, governments are taking it as a doomsday mechanism rather than what it is -yet another aggressive flu-.

Some of you might have been too young to remember about swine flu aka AH1N1. I was on highschool back then. A similar economical crash happened but in a smaller scale given information wasn't as virulent as it is nowadays and given China, Russia and USA's tensions weren't as bad as they are nowadays. Same isolation protocols and panic happened, but at the end it turned out it wasn't as deadly as we were told. The death rates didn't reach the stimated projected -it was a fiasco-. Late spring and the virus was almost done with its deadliest spree. Thing didn't do much harm afterwards. Ironically, ah1n1 was deadlier than coronavirus. It also causes vomits and diarrhea. See my point? Coronavirus is the boogie man who happens to be just an ugly sweater in your closet. Is ugly, yeah, but far more tame than what we think.