The Coronavirus Thread

I think that's the key... everyone is wearing masks, so those that are infected are containing their infection (ie., maybe the 6' radius is more like 2-3'?).

 

Masks can only help, not hurt and certainly don't mean you can ignore social distancing. I don't have a friend who is a healthcare worker who leaves the house without a mask on where I live. The problem is stocks are low, same as ventilators. The US does not plan ahead for disasters but reacts after it happens. South Korea had an epidemic back in 2015 with MERS so they already had plans for another epidemic in place and were fast to react.

 

This is not good. Need of the hour is social distancing and being locked up in home.

 

Those fenceposts are like five feet apart -- the people in the news photo are closer than they should be, but not as crowded together as the lens makes them appear.

 

Wasn’t sure if this one had been circulated or not yet (it’s been reported by multiple news outlets). As pretty much everyone has been thinking/saying, China likely WAY under reporting their death toll:

https://time.com/5811222/wuhan-coronavirus-death-toll/

 

You can't point at one single country and do a cause/correlation thing. Because I could just as easily point to Singapore and say they're doing way better than Korea (far lower death rate, daily life is largely unimpacted and people can still walk around and shop) and most people are not using masks.

Or Australia- almost no pandemic experience, few people wearing masks (unless they're Asian), but people are finally really starting to stay home. They're also handling it far better than South Korea.

And then there's my home- Hong Kong. Mask usage through the roof all over the place, some people are wearing two masks at the same time (I am not joking), one stacked on the other. Also doing well.

Mask use is not the automatic panacea.

And frankly, by the sounds of it, every country out here was better prepared than the US. I'm reading news reports of what's happening over there and it's a constant WTF with how politicised and patchwork the response has been.

 

My job sent a mass email out: No one is going to get laid off due to the virus. They are even making phone agents work from home, crazy time.

 

Sadly we probably will never know the true number of people who died in China.

 

There is no "probably" about it- we will never know as official record taking was deliberately designed to downplay figures. Even if they wanted to release accurate figures now, they wouldn't be able to.

Early on (Jan, Feb) people who died in hospital were generally listed with pneumonia as the cause of death, or with the more immediate causes like "organ failure." People who died at home, because of the overwhelmed medical system, were not counted at all.

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/soc...body-china-knows-about-many-deaths-will-never

 

The problem is they CAN hurt. They tend to encourage bringing your hands to your face more often (risk amplifier), are being reused without decontamination (major risk amplifier), and encourage greater external exposure/reduced physical distancing (risk amplifier). That's not to say you can't use them correctly, or that they are not beneficial as they certainly are.

Remember I'm in a 3rd world country - we have homeless people 'using' them as props at intersections while begging for example, and they will wear the same mask and gloves that they probably pulled from the trash for as long as they will last! That's obviously an extreme case, but we have millions of uneducated people here who have no idea at all how to apply them or why they work.

 

My 0.02:

In my part of the world we're only allowed one person out for grocery runs, "quarantine passes" with ID checks and all; my dad was the one who volunteered. Last I checked he keeps the same mask and just washes it down with rubbing alcohol after coming back home— not an N95, just a run-of-the-mill surgical mask. I don't know how often he changes it out, I'm just glad he does... on occasion.

My general stance on the matter is that it's more a preventative measure against spreading viruses if you yourself are infected. As mentioned above, mouth and nose are far from the only orifices exposed to entry, and while masks certainly can help there are others who are better off having them (e.g. people who actively work to fight this scourge), BUT if there's enough of a surplus for you to use then by all means, have at it! Just keep in mind that it's far from a guarantee of invulnerability and that proper sanitary practises must be adhered to even more rigidly.

Lockdown may or may not go on past 12 April as originally scheduled and I learned of ANOTHER case of a person faking COVID-19 infection through my sister (what in creation's name do these dumbasses have to gain from this?????).

Also, no chance in hell we're ever getting accurate numbers out of Wuhan, hah.

 

You'll be able to get a rough estimate from the total number of cremations in Q1 2020 compared to Q1 2019. Unless they're going to fake that data, of course.

https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2...cience-health-asia-pacific/china-corona-toll/

(Be careful not to jump to conclusions, based solely on the number of these urns. Because obviously, there are cremations performed for non-corona deceased, too.)

 

The world will only find out the truth when the Chinese “dynasty” changes. Remember SBAF that Chinese dynasties were entirely different states. Their rises and falls were incredibly bloody and violent. Crazy horse people took over a few times. You know how horse girls are crazy? Imagine a whole tribe of them.

China still can’t wrap its head around some of the crazy shit that happened. The insane series of events that led to the Manchu conquered China without anyone like Genghis Khan. The Taiping Rebellion was started by the self-proclaimed Chinese younger brother of Jesus. Like if the Moonies met ISIS. Who the hell can wrap their head around that? Shit happens. People are crazy. We’re all apes on a rock. British lawyers wear wigs.

 

I'll just leave this here: https://www.npr.org/sections/corona...nistan-has-banned-use-of-the-word-coronavirus

 

My grandmother's - and mine too - doctor has COVID-19

That'd be the public healthcare doctor, and there's not that many in a small town like ours, so I can only imagine what it's like to get a visit now.

 

Question. Why are the restaurants still serving take out and delivery food? Isn't this a great vehicle for the virus to be spread? I know that the restaurant is on a limited staff, but if one person there is sick, like the person cooking the food, then it stands to reason that the persons eating the food will be sick.

Unless you plan to microwave the food at home for several minutes then I fail to see how this isn't an issue.