Coronavirus Thread / New / Old / Merged

[Dr Quinzel]

A lot of people suffer from haemorrhoids but there has never been any panic about it, seeing as they are generally stuck with it for life, whilst these viruses come and go, so I feel that so far there may have been an overreaction as the media love a bad news scary story. Far more people have piles than Coronavirus.

I can't contract and then expose piles to the elderly and those of low immunity though, can I? If we only think about ourselves as healthy, young (some of us) people, then sure, but if we care for others around us and in the wider public then we should take care and follow guidelines and consider the potential serious outcomes for others.

This will spread because so many people are selfish, stupid and a blend of both. Many businesses will not assist peoples best efforts to stop that from happening by supporting those with symptons to self-contain, and those businesses are not being helped to do so by Govt. £94 a week? Exceptional times call for exceptional measures, and if we, the UK, really wanted to lead in preventative measures then our Govt. should announcing plans allowing people to do so.

It's very likely to spread because of the reasons you cite as well as asymptomatic people being carriers, or those who think they've just got a cold.

Are you suggesting that there should be no entry at all to the UK from (for example) China, South Korea and Italy? I would have thought that radical measures like that would have to be global rather than national to be effective. Testing shows nothing during the incubation period until symptoms develop.

No, I didn't mention stopping of flights at all. I was talking about the Govt. increasing statutory sick payment or some creative tax work to allow employers to pay absent staff where necessary.

But perhaps as a preventative, stopping flights from certain countries and areas could be wise. Either way, the Govt. should be stepping up to the plate on this. I'm feeling fortunate to be British and not American today after Trump's most recent remarks.

[keithh]

I popped into Boots the chemist today and asked the lady "What is the best hand sanitizer for Coronavirus please?"

She replied "Ammonia cleaner"

I said "Sorry, I thought you worked here".

[Holders]

A lot of people suffer from haemorrhoids but there has never been any panic about it, seeing as they are generally stuck with it for life, whilst these viruses come and go, so I feel that so far there may have been an overreaction as the media love a bad news scary story. Far more people have piles than Coronavirus.

I can't contract and then expose piles to the elderly and those of low immunity though, can I? If we only think about ourselves as healthy, young (some of us) people, then sure, but if we care for others around us and in the wider public then we should take care and follow guidelines and consider the potential serious outcomes for others.

This will spread because so many people are selfish, stupid and a blend of both. Many businesses will not assist peoples best efforts to stop that from happening by supporting those with symptons to self-contain, and those businesses are not being helped to do so by Govt. £94 a week? Exceptional times call for exceptional measures, and if we, the UK, really wanted to lead in preventative measures then our Govt. should announcing plans allowing people to do so.

It's very likely to spread because of the reasons you cite as well as asymptomatic people being carriers, or those who think they've just got a cold.

Are you suggesting that there should be no entry at all to the UK from (for example) China, South Korea and Italy? I would have thought that radical measures like that would have to be global rather than national to be effective. Testing shows nothing during the incubation period until symptoms develop.

No, I didn't mention stopping of flights at all. I was talking about the Govt. increasing statutory sick payment or some creative tax work to allow employers to pay absent staff where necessary.

But perhaps as a preventative, stopping flights from certain countries and areas could be wise. Either way, the Govt. should be stepping up to the plate on this. I'm feeling fortunate to be British and not American today after Trump's most recent remarks.

Sorry if I misinterpreted, I just wondered what you thought the govt should be doing. They have a delicate balancing act but I'd agree with you on the points you make.

[Logicalman]

Here's a new level of panic for you.

My wife is a nurse at a practitioners office of a large Health Provider here. This week one of the family doctors informed the staff that she was no longer seeing patients that displayed any symptoms that could be connected to Covid-19, instead they should be directed to the ER!
This comes on top of a total lack of federal awareness of how to test, produce or handle testing kits, and as such the testing rate in the US is one of the lowest.

Ho Hum, it's tough being the "worlds leading economy" with a lack of population education sometimes, and don't fret about only getting 94 quid for being off sick, the employers pay bugger all over here, you have to take sick leave (or PTO if you don't have sick leave available)!

[AnOldBrownie]

Influenza (flu) is a very common, highly infectious disease caused by a virus. It can be very dangerous, causing serious complications and death, especially for people in risk groups. In rare cases flu can kill people who are otherwise healthy. In the UK it is estimated that an average of 600 people a year die from complications of flu. In some years it is estimated that this can rise to over 10,000 deaths (see for example this UK study from 2013 , which estimated over 13,000 deaths resulting from flu in 2008-09). Flu leads to hundreds of thousands of GP visits and tens of thousands of hospital stays a year.

I had Influenza.    They gave me a prescription I had to take for 5 days, and they said I was highly contagious so I stayed home for 5 days (went to the supermarket once).   It was no joke and I had a fever of 102.4 for a day and a half, but other than the fever I didn't really feel that bad.   Mucous..runny nose, but no coughing.

This was the last week of January 2020.

The worst thing was being contagious and having to stay away from everyone for a week.   Thank goodness for the internet.

[Oakeshott]

"With approximately 100,000 CoronaVirus cases worldwide, and 3,280 deaths, the United States, because of quick action on closing our borders, has, as of now, only 129 cases (40 Americans brought in) and 11 deaths. We are working very hard to keep these numbers as low as possible!"

If the figures President Trump quotes are right, the overall death rate may well turn out to be around 3%, which is certainly consistent with Italy's figures to date.

[Statto]

"With approximately 100,000 CoronaVirus cases worldwide, and 3,280 deaths, the United States, because of quick action on closing our borders, has, as of now, only 129 cases (40 Americans brought in) and 11 deaths. We are working very hard to keep these numbers as low as possible!"

If the figures President Trump quotes are right, the overall death rate may well turn out to be around 3%, which is certainly consistent with Italy's figures to date.

Well according to Trump's figures there, the death rate in the USA is about 9% (11 out of 129). According to the Iranians, it's about 15% or something ridiculous like that. According to the UK figures, it's 0%, from a decent sample of cases with no deaths. So obviously something is awry. The reliable (ie expert, Western) sources are unceasingly suggesting a large number of cases are being missed. Even in the worst affected parts of China, they were claiming only 20% of the population was infected, whereas we're expecting 50-80% of the UK population to get it if/when it gets out of control, implying that China was missing tens or hundreds of thousands of people from their figures, probably because they only had mild symptoms or no symptoms at all. I'm willing to bet it will emerge in due course that the death rate is below 1%.

[Oakeshott]

"According to the UK figures, it's 0%, from a decent sample of cases with no deaths"

Sadly no longer true.

[JoelH5]

I read an article from an elderly lady on the Japanese cruise ship. She had her blood tested and was shown to have been infected. She was in hospital for two weeks. She said she woke up every morning expecting to feel aweful. She never did and then she recovered. She said she only knew she had it because of the blood test. I personally think the true figures are 10 if not 100 times more infected but people don't know. Also, very few of us would call 111 in reality and say I think I have Corona if you have a cough. You're more likely to just take 2 weeks off, and that's if you even have symptoms. I'm not underplaying the seriousness at all as some people have immunodeficiencies however, I do believe it is WAY more widespread than we think.

[Oakeshott]

In the face of rapidly spreading coronavirus anxiety, Americans must continue to live their lives, said emergency room physician Dr. James Phillips.

In an interview Tuesday on "America's Newsroom" with host Ed Henry, Phillips stressed that the vast majority of the public is "going to do just fine."

"Most of us are going to get this virus. It's undeniable. You won't find a single expert out there who is saying that this is going to be contained," said Phillips, who serves as the George Washington University School of Medicine's operational medicine fellowship director.

"And, the more we learn about it, the more we see that the spread is going to be global and, for the most part, that's OK because the data we know from China shows that roughly 98 to 99 percent of us are going to do very, very, well," he told Henry.

Thus far, there are over 95,000 confirmed cases of coronavirus and over 3,300 deaths worldwide. Of those cases, there are at least 129 cases and 11 deaths recorded in the United States. Washington state has been hit especially hard by the virus, with nine deaths at a nursing home near Seattle. The death rate is about 3.4 percent.

Most of those taken by the COVID-19 virus are older, infirmed, or those with weak immune systems and Phillips conceded that there is a "certain percentage" of Americans who are "going to get more sick than others."

[davew]

Trump should be more worried about the virus than he is showing, he would be in the serious at risk category if he catches it!

[Steeeeeeeeeed]

Trump should be more worried about the virus than he is showing, he would be in the serious at risk category if he catches it!

To be fair, Biden and Sanders are too. So many 'elderly politicians' in powerful positions these days.

[epsomraver]

I think that the papers have got nothing much to write about so let's panic. Masks that don't work are selling out. If you are fit you will recover. If you're not you probably didn't have long left anyway. I'm 67 and I'm not worried. If I get it I'll give it my best shot.

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[filham]

The virus is on the increase and I suspect emergency restrictions cold soon be in place . If football matches were to be played behind closed gates wold it not be reasonable to allow ffctv to show our matches live.

[The Rational Fan]

The virus is on the increase and I suspect emergency restrictions cold soon be in place . If football matches were to be played behind closed gates wold it not be reasonable to allow ffctv to show our matches live.

That actually would be a brilliant idea for Fulham and "The Championship" to get thousands of new Fulham supporters, because for the rest of this season the premier league will be boring and a lot of people will be staying home on weekends and weeknights to avoid catching coronavirus. Football on TV will be an important pastime for many barely interested in other seasons.

In relation to fear of the virus and overreaction, China and South Korea panicked in February which seems to control the virus, but the Italian people didn't take it seriously enough in February so its has spread fast. The Italian Government has taken action and are hoping the people react like other countries and frankly overeacting is much much much better than undereacting. I am still unsure if Europe react will enough haste.

[bobbo]

I popped into Boots the chemist today and asked the lady "What is the best hand sanitizer for Coronavirus please?"

She replied "Ammonia cleaner"

I said "Sorry, I thought you worked here".

😂😂😂😂😂

[Statto]

The most reliable country in terms of openness that has suffered a considerable number of instances thus far is Italy where it seems that there have been somewhat over 3000 reported instances and 107 deaths (as of yesterday) which, if such relatively small numbers (for evaluating public health issues) prove anything like the norm suggests a mortality rate of over 3%.

Interestingly the latest figures from South Korea (arguably more reliable than Italy) today are showing a mortality rate of less than 0.7% across 6,000+ cases.

Why is their mortality rate lower? Because they're doing the most testing, and factoring in the most mild cases.

Even their testing isn't going to be 100% efficient, so the true rate could be lower still. A good article here estimates 0.5%
https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/health-environment/article/3065187/coronavirus-south-koreas-aggressive-testing-gives

That's still bad news - 5x as bad as the flu and with no vaccine or existing immunity - but not as bad as most other reporting at the moment

[toshes mate]

I read an article from an elderly lady on the Japanese cruise ship. She had her blood tested and was shown to have been infected. She was in hospital for two weeks. She said she woke up every morning expecting to feel awful. She never did and then she recovered. She said she only knew she had it because of the blood test. I personally think the true figures are 10 if not 100 times more infected but people don't know. Also, very few of us would call 111 in reality and say I think I have Corona if you have a cough. You're more likely to just take 2 weeks off, and that's if you even have symptoms. I'm not underplaying the seriousness at all as some people have immunodeficiencies however, I do believe it is WAY more widespread than we think.

This is the central problem with any virus.  Symptoms and seriousness of illness differ person to person; infection to illness periods vary person to person; manner of infection differ from person to person and so on. 

There is tacit admission that the seriousness of Covid-19 may have been under-estimated at the beginning of the outbreak because it appears more subtle in its methods of spread and delivery.  How would anyone know they are carrying the virus if they feel well or just suffer a slight chill for a day or so with no worsening of symptoms?  We should have been prepared for this kind of threat.

It is worth remembering that institutions like the NHS grew out of knowledge that the underlying health of a population, all of that population, was not just about treatment but also about prevention, an investment against risks of infections spreading rapidly and going out of control fast.  Public health was deemed to be a way to ensure we could manage outbreaks before they got out of control.  Have we forgotten how important investment in people's wherewithal is in the race to keep costs down and profits up?   
   

[KingofCheese]

I read an article from an elderly lady on the Japanese cruise ship. She had her blood tested and was shown to have been infected. She was in hospital for two weeks. She said she woke up every morning expecting to feel awful. She never did and then she recovered. She said she only knew she had it because of the blood test. I personally think the true figures are 10 if not 100 times more infected but people don't know. Also, very few of us would call 111 in reality and say I think I have Corona if you have a cough. You're more likely to just take 2 weeks off, and that's if you even have symptoms. I'm not underplaying the seriousness at all as some people have immunodeficiencies however, I do believe it is WAY more widespread than we think.

This is the central problem with any virus.  Symptoms and seriousness of illness differ person to person; infection to illness periods vary person to person; manner of infection differ from person to person and so on. 

There is tacit admission that the seriousness of Covid-19 may have been under-estimated at the beginning of the outbreak because it appears more subtle in its methods of spread and delivery.  How would anyone know they are carrying the virus if they feel well or just suffer a slight chill for a day or so with no worsening of symptoms?  We should have been prepared for this kind of threat.

It is worth remembering that institutions like the NHS grew out of knowledge that the underlying health of a population, all of that population, was not just about treatment but also about prevention, an investment against risks of infections spreading rapidly and going out of control fast.  Public health was deemed to be a way to ensure we could manage outbreaks before they got out of control.  Have we forgotten how important investment in people's wherewithal is in the race to keep costs down and profits up?   
   

Actually with organisations such as CEPI the world is becoming more prepared than we ever were. However a downside of modern life is all the false info being spread on social media by idiots who know nothing. The latest doing the rounds is that hand washing is bad for you as it stops the natural barrier of your skin oils. The fact that the virus is almost always transmitted via your eyes, nose and throat doesn't seem relevant to the spreaders of this mis information which appears to be based on an article about people who overwash to the point of breaking their skin on their hands. In the old days before mass internet and mass disinformation from conspiracy theorists people listened to advice from the medical and scientific community as they realised that these were the experts. The only areas which resisted common sense were cult religious groups. Maybe conspiracy theorists are the new cult religions.

[Andy S]

Health Minister Matt Hancock on question time last night said the government had no intention of stopping people attending football matches as it hadn't worked in Italy. He said that if you played games behind closed doors you just move the problem as people watch games in pubs. He said that football grounds would be safer as you would be out in the open and he hoped that if you weren't feeling well you would stay at home in self isolation.

So what happens if teams are due to play and some members are diagnosed with the Virus?