Coronavirus Outbreak

[Robert]

Any disease or infection hits the very old, very young, and very ill much more severely

Stats so far show it is not very lethal to the young, mostly the old. This could change, but so far, young have little to worry about.

[AnthonyMartin]

Any disease or infection hits the very old, very young, and very ill much more severely

Stats so far show it is not very lethal to the young, mostly the old. This could change, but so far, young have little to worry about.

Yes. The very young, especially premies typically aren't prepared all that well either. The young, as in most children tend to be very resilient.
Age mortality curve for the Spanish Flu is a fairly typical pattern according to my understanding. A limited understanding to be sure.

[Ken]

Looks like urban hipsters and the Amish may be equally in trouble when it comes to coronavirus.

The CDC is warning against certain types of beards (when wearing masks) and even provided this handy diagram. I'm disappointed that they don't have a "full Amish" I'm not making this up. Here's the article: https://nypost.com/2020/02/26/cdc-warns ... s-spreads/

[Szdfan]

Please don’t tell me you believe conspiracy theories like “Trump ran for President to try to get more business to his hotels”.

In any case, the wise thing to do would have been to shut down international air travel and completely close the border. But neither Trump nor the rest of the elites wanted to do that.

Now we’ll have a global pandemic instead of one that could have been contained until we could study the disease and develop a vaccine or a cure.

This disease is quite obviously a condemnation of globalism. It may yet pass judgment on us with literal death until we decide to follow the Bible’s ways instead of man’s ways, much as Noah’s Flood passed judgment, and then later the Tower of Babel.

No indication this virus is any where close to severe as the 1918 Spanish Flu so the apocalyptic language seems a stretch to me

Reports from China suggest a 2% fatality rate, although in Iran it appears to be closer to 14%

A 2% fatality rate would mean 40 deaths at the 2,000 student HS where I teach and about 400 deaths in the town of 20,000 where I live. That seems pretty significant.

Interestingly, the news from China seems to indicate that men are dying at about twice the rate of women. This may be attributable to smoking as about 50% of the male population in China smokes but only about 2% of the female population. And there are indications that a weakened respiratory system from smoking makes one more susceptible to the virus.

An estimated death rate for the 1918 Spanish Influenza was about 2-3%.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_flu?wprov=sfti1

The World Health Organization estimates that 2–3% of those who were infected died (case-fatality ratio). It is estimated that approximately 30 million were killed by the flu, or about 1.7% of the world population died. Other estimates range from 17 to 55 million fatalities.

[AnthonyMartin]

Your right SzdFan, I thought 1918 was closer to 10%.

[temporal1]

Page 9

The fatality rate has been pretty bad in other places like Iran. We won’t know for sure until several more weeks go by.

The most concerning thing is the possibility of reinfection.

Reinfection sounds grim.
(i keep reading) the first bout may not be so bad, reinfection may be fatal.
The hope is to gain immunity. It sounds like this virus doesn’t work that way.
i hope reports are wrong.

Media+politicians are responding ‘way differently to this than we witnessed regarding Ebola, 2014.
One random report from 2014: https://www.forbes.com/sites/steveforbe ... o-the-job/

i’m with the majority, i wish these matters would be apolitical. it’s a wish.

[temporal1]

Page 8

As Winston Churchill famously said: "Never let a good crisis go to waste"

Josh:
It would be interesting if the NeverTrump crowd could show the self-discipline to talk about the coronavirus crisis without constantly getting jabs in at Trump.

LOL, get with the program Josh. Haven't you learned by now, Trump haters will, "Never waste a crisis, by not blaming Trump".

It is sad that this dreadful disease has been made into a political issue, instead of everyone working together for the good of all people.

AOC and many liberals of her ilk, are having a hissy fit that Trump appointed VP Mike Pence to lead the efforts against the spread of the coronavirus.

They lament that Pence doesn't believe in science, thus making him unqualified for the job.

LOL...these are the same people who don't believe in the scientific evidence that a fetus is an actual living human being, and the same people who do not believe in basic scientific biology that a person with male parts is a male, or a person with female parts is a female. The believe there are umpteen genders no matter what biological parts people are born with.

i was glad to know VP PENCE was chosen to lead.
interesting choice.

(i believe) i feel exactly the same regarding response to communicable disease,
whether it’s HIV-AIDS, Ebola, SARS, or Coronavirus.
[Or, the numerous examples of Norovirus outbreaks on cruise ships.]
ISOLATE, QUARANTINE. logical. effective. temporary.

i was bothered that obama seemed very casual about Ebola; as i recall, he did not want to quarantine, stop air transportation, etc. eventually, he appointed RON KLAIN as Ebola Czar.
i’m uneasy with the designation, “Czar,” in the U.S. (it doesn’t seem to cause problems, i prefer other labels.)

not only did Ron Klain have no medical experience, he was connected to the SOLYNDRA debacle,
this made him problematic (for me). he was appointed as a political PR guy.

RK seemed to work out, so, i have no problem with VP Pence now in this leadership role.
(not that my view matters.)

2014 / Ron Klain, Solyndra, Ebola Czar
https://www.nationalreview.com/2014/10/ ... -mccarthy/

i seriously doubt if AOC has ever heard of Solyndra or Ron Klain.
substance is nothing, hissy fits are everything.

[violet]

I am curious to hear more about the re-infection theory.

and where you heard it?

Viruses don't usually mutate that quickly so that an immunity would not be able to be acquired at least for the season.

so, that has peaked my interest.

[Bootstrap]

It's weird that some people blame the outbreak of Corona on people who live in the United States when it started in China. I think some people have a list of enemies and simply assume they are responsible for anything bad. Neither Gates nor Trump nor Obama started this virus. A virus that started in China is not about American politics.

I do think presidential leadership is important in our response to the virus. Even with good leadership, Corona may well spread here, the most we can hope for is sensible precautions, executed well. It's too early to judge how well Trump is going to handle this.

I am not as panicked about this as some people. When we know more, I may be more panicked, but so far we really don't know how big a deal it is. It's a good idea to try to stop it from spreading. There are some things that government can do that make a big difference. But government has limited powers here.

[temporal1]

I am curious to hear more about the re-infection theory.
and where you heard it?

Viruses don't usually mutate that quickly so that an immunity would not be able to be acquired at least for the season.

so, that has peaked my interest.

Everything reported seems preliminary, i see nothing “settled” about Coronavirus.
This is one example:
“Coronavirus: reinfection discovery may be blow to vaccine hopes”
https://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland ... -1.4187234

i have read more alarming pieces on it, but, “alarm” sells, time will tell.

California / 33 confirmed cases
https://laist.com/latest/post/20200227/ ... a-covid-19

U.S. Public Health and Safety, the CDC, etc., are huge government entities.
Response to deadly communicable disease is a lot of what they are about.

(i think of) pandemics in similar ways i think of other natural disasters, like, Katrina.

we can wish for them to not be politicized, but .. that’s a wish.
we can try to ignore self-serving political hissy fits. and, hope to survve.