Coronavirus

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-51235105

I don't want to alarm anyone, but there is a virus spreading fairly rapidly in China which is potentially fatal. Symptoms include fever, coughing, difficult breathing, sneezing, headaches, and potentially kidney failure.
Several cases of this coronavirus have been identified outside of China, with one case (to my knowledge) so far confirmed in the US.
Please see a doctor if you are experiencing any symptoms.

They thought it wasnt human-to-human initially, but either they were wrong or its mutations made it so... because it is human-to-human.

We got our first confirmed carrier in Australia today as well.

You would think that they would lock down the 'ports as soon as this sort of thing was discovered.

I've read World War Z....

Seems the best way to combat this is ... washing and keeping clean.

Which means it has been passing by ... not washing or doing the basics right.
My hope is it don’t kill to many. Real talk - this Corona virus is real. My heart and time goes to those who have been effected.

Corona virus? Are you sure its not from Mexico?

I know, i know, this is totally cereal

CDC on Sat said it wasn't contagious during incubation period, but today China gov has stated it is.

:ohmy: :blink: !!

This is a problem because the incubation period has no symptoms and lasts 14 days. Being contagious during that time means folks won't know they've got it and inadvertently spread it. The SARS virus by comparison was not contagious during its incubation period.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-health-transmission-idUSKBN1ZP09G

Here is a live map for those interested: https://gisanddata.maps.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.html#/bda7594740fd40299423467b48e9ecf6

Interesting read;
https://news.rthk.hk/rthk/en/component/k2/1505090-20200127.htm?spTabChangeable=0

Some of you who are old enough, in internet years (they're like dog years) will remember this wisdom of Dr McNinja -




Sometimes I am briefly concerned about my personal wellbeing with these outbreaks....then I remember I live in a nowhere town with no direct flights to anywhere interesting, and that, lately, it's been more on fire than not.....


so in terms of issues that mostly affect dense population hubs, I can, if you'll excuse the tasteless metaphor - watch the world burn (whilst I am, in a more literal sense, also watching the world burn)



(Obviously my official view is far more compassionate - I am, for the moment, out of expressionable compassion, and into, uhh....fiddling while rome....burns....so to speak....)

We just had case no. 5 confirmed here in Maricopa County (AZ) in Tempe, not far from where I live...

The main thing the news here is saying is any sign of a cold, cough, fever, respiratory difficulties, especially in those with Asthma, etc. Get checked ASAP. It's Treatable and rare for fatalities...

Adder wrote: They thought it wasnt human-to-human initially, but either they were wrong or its mutations made it so... because it is human-to-human.

We got our first confirmed carrier in Australia today as well.

These sorts of things have been evolving very quickly, and becoming resistant to various drugs. We are living in a new age of super bugs, I'm scared to see what tomorrow may bring.

Fear? Life's a gift anyway, we're all on borrowed time probably! Live life, love life, help when possible, and don't stress things. Sounds easier then it is but hey....

An interesting page which shows all provinces of China have confirmed cases is at;
https://news.qq.com/zt2020/page/feiyan.htm

What confuses me is there are more deaths then recoveries according to the stats!?

It'll either kick off, or not. Key take aways seem to be human to human from contact (touch) or droplets (coughing etc), contagious before symptoms means you can spread it before you know you've got it. It seems to last hours or days on surfaces depending on temp, humidity and material type... but details are still sketchy and often yet to be confirmed.

But yea, no vaccine yet or antiviral which works AFAIK, so recoveries might just be natural immunocompetency surviving disease life cycle.

Confirmation: the virus, 2019-nCoV, can be transmitted from asymptomatic individuals: https://www.nejm.org/doi/10.1056/NEJMc2001468

I noticed today for the first time that confirmed cases has overtaken suspected cases..... previously I think folk had been assuming suspected figures included confirmed figures because they represented a field test positive, then lab confirmation respectively. Unless the stats are out of synch tho, else it would appear that suspected and confirmed are two separate populations, which sort of doubles the numbers then what is being reported :ohmy:
Unless I'm mistaken of course, but maybe its a bit lost on translation.

In other news, a cruise liner with 3700 ppl have all been quarentined after 10 passenger's tested positive! Cruise ships are notorious for large numbers of passengers getting flus etc because of the extended close proximity etc.

I'm not saying this isn't an issue or something to be worried about, but I am pretty sure the media is blowing this way out of proportion.

However, avoid airports, especially international ones, and any urban area if you can, especially if you live anywhere near somewhere with lots of international traffic.

And if it's not being exaggerated for the sake of profitable sensationalism, well, I live in the rural Midwest, far from any international airport, so I'm not worried.

Also, I rarely leave the house.

I think people are making this a bigger deal than it needs to be. They all acted the same way with the swine and bird flu and sars, but we're still turning and life is still going on. We've survived worse in the past. It won't be like the black death or anything. True it's easy to spread stuff more with air travel, but our medical tech is better than it was back then, too. Just something to get the public scared about where they over hype things and make it way worse as not that many people have been infected and the ones that died were usually old and had weak immune systems.

Fear is a powerful motivator.... but its still a very interesting, and opportunity to be both aware of it and learning for worse versions of the same type of threat.

An expert in contagious diseases gives estimates and real world reports

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=cZFhjMQrVts&app=m&persist_app=1

I just love that all the healthy people in the world are freaking out over a disease they'll probably never see and buying up all the hand sanitizer I need to keep my immunocompromised family safe.

Oh its around all right. We'd had nearly a dozen confirmed in my city and its not a big city so much, just about half a million (ok pretty big).

Just now Tom Hanks and his wife were tested positive here!! They are here filming a movie..... and it reads like the same symptoms that me and my wife had 2 weeks ago actually, but we got over whatever that was (mostly, as its hanging around a bit). We didn't get tested because back then they were only testing people who'd flown in from China and had symptoms.

And it's not yet flu season down under yet there is a lot of something going around. Probably a good idea for Gov's to ramp up testing to get a better picture of it, in the meantime all us mugs gotta roll with some tighter procedures on more hand washing, no handshaking, sneeze/cough in your shirt lol or they say a bent elbow is good?, also anti-bacterial wipes are useful when out and about and unable to wash your hands.

Apparently the mortality stats range between 1% and 7%, depending on the country, at this early stage of the pandemic, but it averages in the high 3%. Compared to the flu which is about 0.1%, you can understand why they don't want it to spread. That is like 37 times higher, ooops. China seems to have gotten a handle on it though.