In the USA... What it’s like for me...

...

Strange this panic for a disease that isn't anywhere as deadly as influenza. But hey, my country has closed most of it schools and all universities. My workplace is eerily quiet as a result. only the most hardheaded professors are still here and not outside enjoys the beautiful weather^^
Churches close their doors and concerts are canceled. It's currently not allowed to have more then 500 people on an outdoor event, or 100 people inside a building.
And well, it's in europe, so nobody is concerned about pay. The dekan already said we could stay at home as long as we are reachable in case of emergencies.
Some of my private customers have hand washing and no handshaking policies.
Universities are switching to online courses, the students use the chance to visit the city parks, hilarious don't you think?

For myself, i don't do anything different than before. Well, maybe i got a little more lazy, now that there is not that much to do.

It really depends on your age. Kids shouldn't even worry, the disease barely touches them. I feel like the numbers are way bigger than shown but most of them either don't have any symptoms ore barely have any before it passes.

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tsunamikun wrote:

Strange this panic for a disease that isn't anywhere as deadly as influenza. But hey, my country has closed most of it schools and all universities. My workplace is eerily quiet as a result. only the most hardheaded professors are still here and not outside enjoys the beautiful weather^^
Churches close their doors and concerts are canceled. It's currently not allowed to have more then 500 people on an outdoor event, or 100 people inside a building.
And well, it's in europe, so nobody is concerned about pay. The dekan already said we could stay at home as long as we are reachable in case of emergencies.
Some of my private customers have hand washing and no handshaking policies.
Universities are switching to online courses, the students use the chance to visit the city parks, hilarious don't you think?

For myself, i don't do anything different than before. Well, maybe i got a little more lazy, now that there is not that much to do.

Well I think that may be a misconception. The virus causes ARDS, unlike many viruses this one is indeed special,... Usually we get a flu, but that strain of virus usually causes one part of our lungs to inflame, however this Virus attacks our entire lungs. (Information on the CDC website)

Why our elderly is most at risk... Also I have to get something out of my chest, pun intended. Our bodies are amazing, it’s not like we are helpless. From our hair nostrils, to the mucous produced, to our saliva... The virus needs to pass our defense before it even has a chance. Our bodies on a microscopic level is fascinating...

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solwitch wrote:

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tsunamikun wrote:

Strange this panic for a disease that isn't anywhere as deadly as influenza. But hey, my country has closed most of it schools and all universities. My workplace is eerily quiet as a result. only the most hardheaded professors are still here and not outside enjoys the beautiful weather^^
Churches close their doors and concerts are canceled. It's currently not allowed to have more then 500 people on an outdoor event, or 100 people inside a building.
And well, it's in europe, so nobody is concerned about pay. The dekan already said we could stay at home as long as we are reachable in case of emergencies.
Some of my private customers have hand washing and no handshaking policies.
Universities are switching to online courses, the students use the chance to visit the city parks, hilarious don't you think?

For myself, i don't do anything different than before. Well, maybe i got a little more lazy, now that there is not that much to do.

Well I think that may be a misconception. The virus causes ARDS, unlike many viruses this one is indeed special,... Usually we get a flu, but that strain of virus usually causes one part of our lungs to inflame, however this Virus attacks our entire lungs. (Information on the CDC website)

Why our elderly is most at risk... Also I have to get something out of my chest, pun intended. Our bodies are amazing, it’s not like we are helpless. From our hair nostrils, to the mucous produced, to our saliva... The virus needs to pass our defense before it even has a chance. Our bodies on a microscopic level is fascinating...

The virus can cause ARDS but is in fact a relatively rare occurrence. This is not the first one-off coronavirus mutation to be potentially fatal and it wont be the last BUT is it as severe as influenza, which causes 50,000-100,000 deaths every single year? It is not. Just for historical perspective, in 1918 influenza killed 50 million people - let that sink in - yet we don't plunge the world into a panic-induced worldwide recession as we are doing now for influenza each year. I'm not suggesting to throw caution to the wind but I think we're causing more harm than we're alleviating right now.

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Mythreindeer wrote:

The virus can cause ARDS but is in fact a relatively rare occurrence. This is not the first one-off coronavirus mutation to be potentially fatal and it wont be the last BUT is it as severe as influenza, which causes 50,000-100,000 deaths every single year? It is not. Just for historical perspective, in 1918 influenza killed 50 million people - let that sink in - yet we don't plunge the world into a panic-induced worldwide recession as we are doing now for influenza each year. I'm not suggesting to throw caution to the wind but I think we're causing more harm than we're alleviating right now.

You are right that it's not as severe as the common influenza type... it's worse. Significantly so. It's both more contagious AND more lethal than the common flu, particularly for those with weakened immune systems. Sure, the common flu kills an estimate of 12000 to 60000 people every year... but that's across as much as 8 MILLION infected people. Which is about 0.75% lethality rate, a huge majority of which already were weakened for a variety of reasons. COVID-19 has so far infected a confirmed total of about 150000 people, about 3000 of which died. That's a 2% lethality rate. And it's confirmed to be capable of killing perfectly healthy adults, which is something the flu has only done in the rarest of cases.

And regarding the spanish flu, you should keep in mind that it was both a particularly potent mutation of the flu AND followed world war 1. The circumstances were nowhere near those of the seasonal flu we have to deal with each year. Also, back then there was no vaccine for it. The spanish flu is the reason we have flu vaccines now, which already prevent a lot of flu infections.

The flu kills very many healthy young adults and teens due precisely to their very healthy immune systems. COVID-19 at this early point may have a higher mortality rate but it would remain to be seen if over the course it would take it out more lives total. No way to know that. Point being, the effect of trying to isolate billions of people is going to have a higher negative toll than if we educate and practice better infection control but allow every day life to move forward. COVID-19 is not the zombie apocalypse virus. It just isn’t.

It is STILL a highly contagious and to a rather braod group of people also very dangerous virus. It is NOT to be underestimated.

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FCK42 wrote:

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Mythreindeer wrote:

The virus can cause ARDS but is in fact a relatively rare occurrence. This is not the first one-off coronavirus mutation to be potentially fatal and it wont be the last BUT is it as severe as influenza, which causes 50,000-100,000 deaths every single year? It is not. Just for historical perspective, in 1918 influenza killed 50 million people - let that sink in - yet we don't plunge the world into a panic-induced worldwide recession as we are doing now for influenza each year. I'm not suggesting to throw caution to the wind but I think we're causing more harm than we're alleviating right now.

You are right that it's not as severe as the common influenza type... it's worse. Significantly so. It's both more contagious AND more lethal than the common flu, particularly for those with weakened immune systems. Sure, the common flu kills an estimate of 12000 to 60000 people every year... but that's across as much as 8 MILLION infected people. Which is about 0.75% lethality rate, a huge majority of which already were weakened for a variety of reasons. COVID-19 has so far infected a confirmed total of about 150000 people, about 3000 of which died. That's a 2% lethality rate. And it's confirmed to be capable of killing perfectly healthy adults, which is something the flu has only done in the rarest of cases.

And regarding the spanish flu, you should keep in mind that it was both a particularly potent mutation of the flu AND followed world war 1. The circumstances were nowhere near those of the seasonal flu we have to deal with each year. Also, back then there was no vaccine for it. The spanish flu is the reason we have flu vaccines now, which already prevent a lot of flu infections.

No offense but your baseline of comparison is wildly wrong.

You would have to compare influenza without a functional vacine and counter strategy with covid-19 to make a fair comparison of death tolls.

Influenza would be a lot worse then covid if we didn't have the luxury of a vacine and put in place measures against it which have been routine and made efficient.

Covid will be the same a year from now, we will most likely have a vacine and a contra strategy for when it pops up again.
Our elders wont be at risk and an outbreak will simply mean a unit of the CDC flying in with vacines to supress the contagion.(if it isn't directly available at nearby health facility's)

The difference between the flu and covid is simply the absence of a vacine.

This difference shouldn't be downplayed or be discarded because it is an extremely relevant factor on how we should deal with it in the time untill we have one.

But this apocalypse now mentality doesn't help the situation either, we rely on our infrastructure and social cohesion to

1) isolate the virus currently(civic duty)
2) get the funding to the relevant centers to work on a vacine
3) direct resources to places of crisis

This makes a stampede on resources extremely dangerous when our infrastructure is in a stress-test situation and could easily backfire in more casualty's.

Peace,

-Boem-

Russia has a vaccine apparently.



Of course nobody should put much stock into this.