Corona - any cases here?

[Rachael]

To add to this, the symptoms are known for staying dormant for several days/weeks in an infected person, and with the lack of adequate testing, there's no way to know for sure if you have it. So it is important both to act as if you have it and as if everyone you meet has it. (In terms of maintaining healthy social distancing.)

That's actually the single most dangerous thing about this thing, actually. It has, to quote Nash, "a sneak skill of 100". The main problem isn't who it affects (though that is a serious issue) - it's who it doesn't affect at least in the short period of time after initial infection, and how easily it can spread through the population without people knowing it's even there.

[Enjay]

Hmm for some reason I suspect this virus might be not as dangerous as we think

I believe that, as of the time of typing and ignoring Chinese (and other) death toll under reporting, there are 51,580 people who can neither agree nor disagree with you any longer.

One of the biggest dangers is people thinking it's no big deal and then just going about their lives because it "isn't that dangerous". That's how it spreads. That's how it gets to vulnerable people. And that's why they die.

Also, youngest UK death, 13 years old, no known underlying health problems.

[Rachael]

Infant in US already died from it. I have no idea if there were underlying health problems - but like I said, this thing kills children, too, even if not as many. Literally everyone is vulnerable, to some extent.

[Matt]

I just saw the context of the "what do you think about China" question.

IIRC they closed all the movie theatres (again) like a week after their government PR folks said the entire country was down to zero.

I would not take their business as normal as an indicator of much.

[Graf Zahl]

That's actually the single most dangerous thing about this thing, actually. It has, to quote Nash, "a sneak skill of 100". The main problem isn't who it affects (though that is a serious issue) - it's who it doesn't affect at least in the short period of time after initial infection, and how easily it can spread through the population without people knowing it's even there.

Regarding that, what pisses me off most about the current discussion is whether masks are useful or not, with some "experts" repeating that masks are useless because they won't protect from infection. But nearly everybody agrees that even a simple home-made mask can prevent the wearer from infecting others. It seems to me that these experts really don't get it - if people have to wear masks outside the risk of infection would be greatly reduced - and yet, that's something nobody here seems to want to commit to, although it appears to be the best thing right now with no cures and vaccines out there. I think it's saying a lot that Asian countries where wearing masks is nothing unusual seem to have an easier job controlling the disease than the western world where this is being viewed as odd.

[Graf Zahl]

I would not take their business as normal as an indicator of much.

They can do that if their new infection rate drops to zero - where it clearly isn't. This thing can flare up there again any day if they aren't careful. Same in South Korea.

[Rachael]

They can do that if their new infection rate drops to zero - where it clearly isn't. This thing can flare up there again any day if they aren't careful. Same in South Korea.

And it will do so if the West doesn't get its fucking act together and do a quarantine like they did. Instead, our politicians are obsessing and sweating over the effects this will have on the economy, rather than just taking a hit and doing a global quarantine for 3 weeks to stop this thing.

Ironically, taking such action would be better for the economy in the long-term than dragging their feet as they are now. It's a shame that our economy is a system that rewards impulse and short-term gains so much more generously, it's created a dangerous mindset that is literally the antithesis of fighting a pandemic. If they had even two brain cells amongst the lot of them, this thing would be done and over with before they would even notice it.

[Graf Zahl]

Don't tell me, I've said this when it first flared up in Italy, but what did the rest of Europe do? - they sat it out until it was too late - because keeping the borders open was too high an ideal to sacrifice. They could have contained it back then if that had had the guts to do some unpopular measures and quarantine as many people as possible. But no, they waited two weeks and that was too much.

And I still have to wonder what kind of dense morons were running the hospitals in Northern Italy that they managed to oversee the problem to come for possibly several weeks - and then manage entire hospitals to get infected. I wonder how far it had really spread already before they noticed something was up. This went far too fast and far too wide for that first detected cluster to be the real origin.

[Matt]

I think it's saying a lot that Asian countries where wearing masks is nothing unusual seem to have an easier job controlling the disease than the western world where this is being viewed as odd.

The way I see it, even if they were nearly useless (in which case covering your mouth when you cough would be even more useless(!)), if the main push is to modify human behaviour en masse to keep them away from each other to stop the spread, then a big highly visible reminder on every human being's face is the best way to do it...

EDIT: added xkcd link

[Darkcrafter]

So there is another wave began in China apparently.

[wildweasel]

So there is another wave began in China apparently.

Source?

[Darkcrafter]

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-heal ... SKBN21J64X

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/articl ... o=embedded

[Rachael]

The Daily Mail? I might as well be getting my news straight from Fox News if I were to believe anything they publish.

[Graf Zahl]

It only says what other news outlets have also been reporting - China has initiated a preemptive lockdown in a province where there is a possibility of a new outbreak. Say what you want - had they done this here in Europe right away the situation wouldn't be as bad as it is.

[drfrag]

Hope you guys get well soon.
Someone was wondering what's happening in Spain, there's an interesting article here but it's in spanish and i don't know how to translate it. Wild health cuts basically.
https://www.nytimes.com/es/2020/04/09/e ... tales.html